East Texas

By CASEY KNAUPP
Staff Writer

Texas leads the nation in drunken driving deaths and Smith County sees nearly the highest number of fatalities in the state each year.

During National Crime Victims Rights week, which was held Sunday through Saturday, national and local representatives of Mothers Against Drunk Driving wanted to remind the public that they are here for the victims of drunken drivers.

Glynn R. Birch, national president; Vicki Knox, executive director in the East Texas region; Chris Johnson, chairperson on the national board of directors based in Tyler; and Smith County District Attorney Matt Bingham met with the Tyler Morning Telegraph editorial board Thursday after Birch spoke at a crime victim's rights conference in Tyler.

They talked about the strides MADD has made since its inception 28 years ago, as well as its goals for the future.

Birch said MADD's main purpose is to have a nation without drunken driving.

He said people tolerate the tragedies, such as his 21-month-old son being killed by a drunken driver in 1988. But, he said, when the technology is available, they will be intolerable and impossible - that's MADD's goal, he said.

Texas has the highest number of fatalities in the country. And in 2006, the East Texas region, which includes 49 counties, went from third to second place in the number of fatalities each year. Smith and Gregg counties usually take the No. 1 and 2 spots in the East Texas region. And, per capita, the counties are on top in the state.

Birch said in the past 28 years, MADD has come a long way. There are 40 percent less fatalities because of law enforcement. But, he said, it hasn't changed enough.

He believes the rights need to be given back to the victims.

Birch said the budget needs to be increased instead of being taken away. Last summer, $35 million was cut from VOCA, the Victims of Crime Act, which provides funds to MADD and other advocacy organizations with money gained from offender's fees.

Birch said that without the funding, he may not have gotten the help he needed when his son died. and without that help, he didn't know what he'd be doing today.

Johnson had just moved to Smith County with his parents when his mother and father were killed by a drunken driver. He said VOCA funds helped to pay for other family members to come to Tyler, as well as all kinds of other things.

People have been attacking the VOCA funds for about three years, wanting the money to be spent elsewhere, Johnson said. He said VOCA is a specific fund designated to all victims of crime, not just MADD, and the pie is shrinking for all victims. MADD alone serves 7,000 Texas victims every year, he said.

Ms. Knox said MADD's goal is to eliminate drunken driving by separating alcohol from cars.

She talked about new, developing technology that will one day allow cars to read alcohol intake by a person's touch or breath when they get behind the wheel.

Birch said the devices will be unobtrusive, similar to air bags, because about 40 percent of Americans don't drink. The public demanded air bags for every passenger in a car and MADD wants the public to demand alcohol-detecting devices in every car, he said.

But first, MADD is focusing on getting the devices put it cars of those who deserve it - those who have been convicted of a drunken driving offense, he said.

They also want interlock devises to be placed in cars of first-time drunken driving offenses instead of after their second offense, as many states do now, including Texas, Johnson said.

Birch said there are 1.5 million arrests due to drunken driving nationally every year and 130,000 interlock devices are being used. He said New Mexico is the first state to order interlock devices on the cars of first-time offenders and the state's fatality rate dropped 12 percent.

Five years from now, he hopes there will be fleet vehicles with interlock devises, placed there by employers, Birch said. Ten years from now, they hope to have them on all vehicles.

Ms. Knox said they're working with insurance companies, police, medical communities and automobile manufactures. She said they're working on getting insurance companies to offer discounted rates to people who voluntarily put the devices in their cars.

Birch said they can't get ahead of technology, but are trying to get the public ready for it while it's being developed.

Now, MADD is also trying to get sobriety checkpoints in every state.

Birch said law enforcement and the checkpoints are deterrents to drinking and driving.

MADD also addresses college campuses in an effort to prevent underage drinking. The University of Texas at Tyler and Texas College have both begun UMADD organizations. Ms. Knox said MADD needs to develop a parent program to teach parents to begin talking to their children, beginning at age 7 or 8, about drinking alcohol. In Texas, the average age a person takes their first drink is 12 years old, she said. In the nation, it's 15.

Kids drink because they can, and often are supplied alcohol from adults, oftentimes their parents.

Birch said the younger the children are when they are introduced to alcohol, the more likely they will become dependant on alcohol and will become drunken drivers. MADD wants to perform compliance checks to make sure bars and stores are complying with the law and not serving minors.

"We're losing or kids ... our most valuable resource," he said.

Ms. Knox said alcohol is the gateway drug to narcotics, date rape, domestic violence and other crimes. MADD is now working with municipal courts and kids are court-ordered to attend MADD classes. She said she would like to have parents also be ordered to attend.

Bingham said that to change the statistics, MADD needs to start on the ground floor and educate students before they fall into the lifestyle of drinking. He said they also need to create public awareness.

Bingham has said trying driving while intoxicated cases can be difficult because jurors think everyone has drank and driven and no one got hurt. But, Bingham said, at any moment accidents can occur. He said the offense is committed by many people in the public but it doesn't lessen the seriousness of the offense.

He said it is his responsibility to be aggressive with the cases, but there are other district attorney's offices that reduce first-time DWI offenses because they are afraid to try the cases. He said Smith County juries are not so tolerant.

Bingham said the penalties need to fit the crime.

Ms. Knox commended Bingham on being aggressive on drunken drivers and said she would love to have a relationship with other counties as MADD does with Smith County.

Bingham talked about those who re-offend when released from jail or prison. He said there are those who genuinely want treatment, but it has to be the offender's responsibility because no one can force them to stop. He said things such as the interlock devices help to take the offender's decisions out of it.

Bingham said drinking and driving offenses are preventable. Stay home and drink, have a designated driver or call a cab - it's that simple, he said.

Drinking and driving can ruin the lives of victims and their families as well as the lives of the offenders and their families, he said.

Updated Sunday, April 20, 2008 at 2:43 p.m. CDT

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