Herald ft Ljnlwn 29 Ptctmbtf '82

8 NfrtnirM'i-H For Service Academies

Fight Stepped Up On Drunk Driving

WASHINGTON. D'f • K|ght rape ' May Founty ri^idents were Among the v'lunK.mrn and women nominated to the four nviMary.»*erYjce academies tty .(-'ongresnittan Bill Hughe* <I>NJ 1 The candidate', names were submitted to the academies Air Force Merchant Marine. Military and Naval after personal MTtenmg of each applicant |»v a screening committee chaired , by .Bruce Kib t.lehouse o'Ocean Fity Thr county nominees are . Air Force Academy Stephen M McHhenny and Thomas K.PhellHd Jr taith of iK'eapt fty

Merchant Marine Aoadefny Kdward J S Connelly. Wildwood Naval Academy — Nathan B Hecho and Amy Jo Potts, lx>th of Ocean City Thomas S Hutchinson and David B Rortiherger. Stone' Harbor , William R Shimp. SeaviHe, and Robert H Wriggins Jr. Tucha poo —— r*

TRENTON - ‘ I am encotiraged by the Legislature's action in returning the legal drinking age to 21.'' said Clifford W Snedeker, Director of the New Jersey Division of Motor Vehicles, noting that to percent of the deaths on New Jersey roadways over the first six months of this year involved drunk drivers under the afce of 21. THE FATALS I'm talk ing about aren't the ones, where one of the drivers might have had a beer tiefore getting behind the wheel The drivers.* who scare me are the true drunk drivers, those with blood alcohol concentra tions df 0J0 percent or higher "Thirty-two percent of

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the 1,193 individuals who died on our roadways last year Were victims of true drunk driving and the figures are .running about the saihe thts yfar,” Snedeker said. ALTHOUGH IWH saw a decrease in the number and percentage of individuals killed in altohol*clated accidents on New Jersey roadways, there was an, increase in the number and percentage killed in true drunk driving crashes * s ‘More disturbing.'’ Snedeker said, "is the fact that the number (if true drunk driving fatals has been increasing since 1976." IN 1976.255 persons, or 24 percent of the /atals on our roadways were'due to tnue drunk driving. In 1977. it was 27». or 25 percent; in. 1978, it was -318. or 27 percent; in 1979. it was 336. or 29 percent; in 1980.it was '371, or 32 percent; in 1981, it . was 376. again 32 percent "Those are not just numbers." Snedeker said. "They are human lives anji these lives point to a situation that should,.and must, concern us all. • THE ONLY way to bring the situation under control is by publicizing the ' Seriousness of the problem, educating our ^drivers to the fact that thinking and driving does nft mix and, above all, by inteasing the rate of apprehension of current drurtk drivers." said Snedeker. * That is why the keystone of Governor Kean’s new drunk driving legislative package is the creation of a , Drunk Driving Enforcrment Fund that will allow us to step up the apprehension of drunk drivers. Snedeker said. , DMV HAS already experimented with a Drunk Driving Overtime Patrol in some 42 municipalities us ing a limited supply of federal money and it has proved quite successful. Snedeker said "The overtime patrols are a vehicle to overcome the problem of drivers thinking that they can drink and drive with little likelihood of ever being stopped by the police,” Snedeker said. DURING THE first nine

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months tff the overtime program, the 42 par ticipating municipal police departments arrested 3,395 individuals on dfunk driv ing charges during 21,156 overtime patrol hours That is one arrest for every 6.2 hours of patrol,-an excellent rate, Snedeker said. The cost of the program, in both salaries and reimbursement for the 395.000 miles covered by the patrol vehicles, totals $386,927.58. •THAT BREAKS down to a cost of $113.97 for each arrest — a rather small pHce to pay for the possible saving of lives," Snedeker said. "the overtime program also encourages officers to be mbre fclert for drunkdrivers during regular • patrols,'' Snedeker said ; "Those same departments arrested 2.'868 drunk drivers on regular patrol during thatNiine-month period." THE£PEC1AL fund called for in Governor Kean’s i new legislative ^package’ will be financed by charging each convicted drunk driver, or driv^Hv^ho , refuses to take a breath test, an additional surcharge of $125. DMV will k^ep $5 from earth surcharge' to cover administrave costs and funnel the rest back to the staie and municipal police so they' can dispatch additional overtime patrols during the early morning hours when most of our true drunk driving fatals occur, Snedeker said. "WITH SOME 35,000 drunk driving arrests in New Jersey this year and a conviction rate of 96 percent, the surcharge should realize more, than $^ million for use in combating drunk drivers." Snedeker said. ♦ “The special patrols will concentrate on druhk drivers and onfce the motoring public realizes the chances, of apprehension have been greatly increased, the incidents of drunk driving will drop, and so will the number of lives lost." Snedeker said. •SOME 90 percerlt of the drivers oh our nation’s highways at any given moment have not been drinking and another 5 percent have a blood alcohol concentration in the low range of 0 to-0.05 percent," Snedeker said. "Yet, 50 percent of our nation’s driving fatals are alcoholrelated. That certainly, and in no uncertain terms, points up the fact that drinking and driving spell

death.'' Another key feature in Governor Kean's package would allow police officers to suspend immediately the license of a driver who is a second offender, if he is found to have a blood alcohol concentration of 0.10 percent or higher. A similar penalty is included if the second offender refuses, to take the breathalyzer test. "AS IT STANDS' now,” Snedeker said, "a driver with a previous history of drunk driving can r^use to take the test and get off with a lesser penalty than if he took the test and was eventually convicted. The Governor's proposal closes that loophole." A.third important feature in the package extends the Implied Consent Law to blood and ‘tirine tests, which can reveal the presence of drugs or intoxication not revealed by breath testing. FINALLY, the Governor wants to create a death by auto statute within the motor vehicle law where anyone who causes a death while engaged.in the violation of the drunk driving laws,, reckless driving, leaving the scene of an accident, or while driving 20 mtfW over the speed limit shall be guilty of unintentional vehicular homicide. Those individuals could be prosecuted in municipal courts in cases where prosecutors do not seek grand jury indictments. The penalty for a violation of that statute would be a $500 to $1,000 fine or imprisonment f6r 90 days to one year, or both. "Drunk drivers kill 25.000 Co 26,000 men, women and children each year on U S. highways and seriously injure moit* thin 750.000 others,” Snedeker sajd. "That is nearly 70 . persons killed and 2,054 injured each and eVery calendar day. Those figures, alone, are good reason fdY new legislation to crack down on drunk driving,’’ Snedeker said. .•tv '

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