Don?t break out the champagne for a responsible victory toast quite yet, but it looks as if we may be winning the war against drunken driving. That historic victory implies that some intensive, continuous, broadly based initiatives involving government, business and nonprofit partnerships actually can effect positive social change.
Drunken driving is a self-inflicted, entirely preventable terrorist attack upon ourselves, one that maims millions of Americans and kills one of us on average every half hour.
Baltimore area police reports from this past New Year?s Eve and Day ? notorious times of revelry, drinking and drunken driving ? show no traffic fatalities and an apparent decline in drunken driving arrests.
Maybe we?re finally wising up.
In Maryland, while overall traffic fatalities dropped 18 percent since 1986, drunken driving fatalities peaked that year and dropped 30 percent since. While factors such as improved emergency medical services, better traumatic medicine and safer cars affect fatality rates, the statistical impact would be about the same for total and alcohol-related accidents.
National statistics reflect the same trend.
This decline in slaughter comes after decades of legislative, law enforcement, educational and citizen efforts to deal with it.
Toughening laws, intensifying enforcement, imposing maximum penalties, propagating the message in all media, raising awareness, empowering friends and families, researching medical interventions and imposing a cultural stigma all combine to target a specific, deadly anti-social behavior.
For a State Police blotter to read “All Quiet” in the Baltimore area this New Year?s holiday ? with a late Ravens game and full festivities drawing tens of thousands of drivers onto roads and highways ? is almost a miracle. Certainly now is not the time to relax. Now is the time to figure out what is working best and why. Now also is the time to study other pressing social problems that could yield to an integrated approach.
Honestly, most massive, draconian government efforts fail or, some would argue, even serve to exacerbate problems, like Witness Prohibition and The War on Drugs. But comprehensive, carefully crafted partnerships can work over time. At least that is one bright hope in the cold statistics about drunken driving.
