This means as we're growing, DUIs are decreasing.
Huh?
Because he works in the state's public safety office, Johansen deserves the benefit of the doubt. But those stats just don't sound right. This is the land of the free cocktail, of 24/7 liquor availability. We have more bars, nightclubs, restaurants and casinos, more visitors and more people living here than ever before—and there are fewer people driving drunk on the roadways? Or are there fewer people getting caught and fewer causing accidents? I mention that in Clark County, on any given night, you could probably find dozens of people driving home from clubs who are legally drunk. Johansen agrees.
"This is a 24/7 town with the atmosphere or liquor available at all times. It's also a 24/7 working town. Someone who gets off at 2 a.m. may got get drinks and by the time they go home, it could 7 a.m., and they're mixing in with the morning traffic. So the potential for accidents is high."
And yet the numbers say the streets are safer from drunk drivers?
"It took us 15 years to get below the national average," he says, "so it's unrealistic to expect that with our continued population growth that we will continue to decrease in DUI fatalities."
It was the first time in years that Vegas hosted a national DUI conference. However, it was only national in that the federal traffic safety administration funded it. Most of the speakers came from around Nevada and talked about efforts that, while combating driving under the influence, seem to reinforce that it is a larger problem than numbers suggest.
In April, the Las Vegas Municipal Court created a DUI Court; 11 offenders are currently receiving counseling, attending victim empathy sessions and being randomly drug tested.
Though there's been a 9-percent drop in youth who ride with people who drink and 7-percent declines in youth who drink and drive and those who've have their first drink from 1999 to 2005, Kathy Bartosz, statewide coordinator for enforcing underage drinking laws, notes that Nevada was the first state to pass laws punishing high school athletes caught drinking. The first offense involves a two-week suspension from play and 10 hours of community service. Second offense: mandatory drug testing and a three-month suspension. Third offense: expulsion. Bartosz says Carson City is weighing an ordinance that would hold owners of properties where unruly gatherings occur—i.e., house parties—liable for clean-up and repair. Traffic safety advocates also plan to proffer a bill in the upcoming legislative session mandating, in counties with more than 400,000 people, that everyone who serves alcohol be trained.
The cops in attendance noted that the once-abysmal compliance rates for convenience stores selling alcohol to juveniles (80 percent failed compliance checks seven years ago) have improved dramatically. In a recent check of seven stores in the northwest, only one sold alcohol to juveniles. On the flip side, cops said that youth are getting slicker, relying on the age-old trick of getting a willing adult to cop some booze for them.
Outside the conference room, Michael Diamond had a table set up hawking his SCRAM device (Secured Continuous Remote Alcohol Monitoring). A small, fist-sized device, SCRAM looks and functions much like an ankle bracelet. The device analyzes sweat to detect alcohol in the wearer's bloodstream. When alcohol is detected, a modem inside automatically reports the results to probation officials. The device then tests sweat every 30 minutes to an hour and alerts authorities if the wearer tries to tamper with or remove it.
"The traditional method involved people going down to the station to get a breath test," says Diamond, noting that SCRAM is used in most local jurisdictions. "This works a lot better. We've had defendants thank us because they had to surrender the alcohol."