Life is too short; don't drive drunk!

It was several years ago when I pulled up to the scene of a smashed and twisted up truck on the side of the road after getting reports of a vehicle that was swerving all over the highway. There was still smoke coming from the engine and there were parts of the truck scattered up and down the road. I ran to the truck to give assistance, but was already preparing myself for what I might find. When I approached the truck, I was surprised to see it was empty. As I shined my light inside to make sure I was not missing anything, I started noticing the beer cans and an extremely strong odor of alcohol. My first thought was maybe there was some way the driver of this truck had made it out of this big pile of metal alive, but as I raised my flashlight over the top of the truck my light found the shape of a body lying in the middle of the road. It was a very young man that I had dealt with many times before, but this would be the last. He was pronounced dead on scene a short time later by EMS. He had also been drinking all evening and had much more alcohol in his system than is allowed to operate a motor vehicle. The only thing that could have made this incident any worse is if someone else had been hit by the truck.

I recently had someone contact me who had been arrested for a DWI and said they were only trying to drive a few blocks to their house so they should not have been arrested for it. This was not a big deal in his mind because he was only driving a short distance. But an intoxicated person driving a car is just as deadly traveling one block as they are a mile. We used to call any incident involving vehicles an MVA (motor vehicle accident), but the truth is they are not accidents when someone is drunk. They are vehicle crashes and the driver can never claim it is anything other than their fault if they are involved in a crash while intoxicated. I expect the highest level of professionalism from our deputies when making any stop or arrest, but if the deputy appears to not be interested in the "reason" a driver has to be driving a vehicle while intoxicated, it may be because that deputy, like any who have served for very long at all, has been at a vehicle crash and saw firsthand what can happen when a drunk driver is roaming the streets. Over the next few months, we will be receiving several overtime grants from the state to focus on DWI enforcement. There will be no tolerance for impaired drivers! Our job is to help protect the community and make the streets as safe as we can for the citizens who expect their kids, spouses, and parents to make it home and not get hit by a drunk driver. Be safe and be responsible; if you are going to drink, make sure you get a ride. Life is too precious and too short for it to be snatched away because someone did not want to find some other alternative than driving while intoxicated.