The Governor’s Office of Highway Safety warns that Georgia motorists are on track for an increase in this year’s highway fatalities for the first time in six years.
Last year, 1,226 people died on the state’s roadways. That is why this year’s holiday catch phrase from the office of highway safety is: “If you don’t drive sober, you’ll get pulled over.”
While catch phrases have a long-standing tradition in road safety programs, it is a good idea to pay attention to this one since law enforcement is getting tougher on drivers who put others at risk on the state’s roadways. Just for the record, so are insurers.
Year-end holidays are a time for office parties and gatherings of friends and family. There is no shortage of alcoholic drinks for most of these events, and therein lies the problem.
Drunken driving never takes a holiday. That’s why law enforcement is joined ever year by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), Students Against Drunk Driving (SADD) and other interested groups. It’s the same story over and over.
“Just one more.” “I can handle it.” “I’m fine.” “No problem!” These phrases are often the last words friends, loved ones and bartenders hear as the impaired driver heads down the road.
If you can’t handle it and are convicted of drunken driving, you face numerous consequences.
In Georgia, even on a first offense you are likely to face a one-year suspension of your license, one of the strictest punishments in the country. Convicted drunken drivers also face vehicle confiscation, possible jail time up to one year and may have to pay a fine anywhere from $300 to $1,000.
If that doesn’t deter you, consider a huge increase in insurance premiums or worse yet, your auto insurance is non-renewed when you do get out of jail.
Think this is harsh? You know it. When it comes to drunken driving, it doesn’t matter whether you’re a sports figure, a movie star or the next-door neighbor. The lesson here is that we as individuals are responsible for our actions.
The fact is one can blame the bartender, the party host, the company that hosted the event, or you can blame drunken driving on personal problems, various other circumstances or do what is the most difficult — look in a mirror.
If that doesn’t help, the federal safety board is recommending that all states require ignition interlock devices for convicted drunken drivers, including first-time offenders. The five-member National Transportation Safety Board said the devices are currently the best available solution to reducing drunken driving deaths, which account for about a third of the nation’s 32,000 traffic deaths each year.
In particular, the board cited a new study by its staff that found some 360 people a year are killed in wrong-way driving crashes on high-speed highways. The study concluded that 69 percent of wrong-way drivers had blood alcohol levels above the legal limit of .08.
Let’s really be careful out there this year.
David Colmans is executive director of the Georgia Insurance Information Service, an industry association of property and casualty insurance companies that do business in Georgia. Contact him by email at dcolmans@giis.org.