Column: Stopping tragedy with prevention, enforcement
The drunk driver who crashed head-on into my husband Michael’s highway patrol car south of Kalispell didn’t come out of nowhere. He emerged from Montana’s hard-drinking culture.
Like Michael, he lost his life because the old ways of dealing with this old problem are not working. We need new strategies to support the life-saving efforts of not only the Montana Highway Patrol – but a coalition of citizens and groups willing to look upstream and target alcohol-related tragedies at their source.
That means funding prevention efforts, and drawing an important connection between prevention and enforcement. Currently, very few state tax dollars go to support prevention efforts proven to reduce youth access to alcohol. We rely on the federal government for this, and the funding is never enough.
So now, as recently released statistics show, Montana teens boast the second highest rate in the nation for youth binge drinking, which is defined as consuming five or more drinks in less than two hours. For many years, Montana’s kids held the number one spot.
Still, we’ve never attempted to effectively fix this problem at its source – when kids in all parts of the state are growing up in communities that promote excessive drinking.
Local prevention efforts have made progress, and prevention advocates are pushing for new statewide policies. One is designed to change the environment by making it more difficult for youth to purchase alcohol, and less likely adult customers will become dangerously drunk. It’s called Responsible Alcohol Sales and Service (RASS) training, and it should be mandatory for all employees selling beer, wine and liquor. RASS-trained employees are more likely to stop problems at the checkout counter and barstool before they spill out onto the highway.
Along with other groups around the state, a federally funded program called the Montana Community Change Project is actively promoting environmental prevention strategies and evidence-based solutions like RASS training. But again, this important work is federally funded, and the money is scheduled to run out in 2011.
Montana needs to step up and build a stronger link between aggressive prevention and enforcement. By supporting prevention on the front end, it’s possible to reduce the future costs of cracking down on underage drinking and impaired driving.
Law enforcement can do only so much. This past July Fourth, shortly after 10 p.m., at least 20 motorists called 911 to report a car headed north in the southbound lanes of Highway 93 near Kalispell. Some cars swerved into a ditch to avoid a head-on collision with the car, which was driving slowly with its headlights off.
Thankfully, the car was stopped near mile marker 108, not far from where another drunk driver – traveling north in a southbound lane – crashed into my husband’s patrol car.
Behind the wheel this time was a 23-year-old probation officer. It’s safe to assume she knew better than to drink and drive. But she lives in Montana, an environment where 10 percent of young adults ages 18 to 25 are alcohol dependent. That’s the highest rate for this age group in the nation.
Their drinking is nurtured and encouraged by a culture that’s headed the wrong way. If we don’t turn it around, we can expect more impaired drivers to appear out of the darkness sometime down the road and claim more lives.
(Tawny Haynes is a mother of two and part of a coalition pushing for expanded enforcement and prevention programs in Montana. She lives in Kalispell.)