Thursday, May 3, 2001
The University Daily Kansan
Section A · Page 3
Drunk drivers pay long-lasting social, financial costs
Continued from page 1A
the fine increases to $500 to $1,000.
a third DUI, a felony, starts at $1,000.
The Breathalyzer measures the driver's breath-alcohol concentration. In the state of Kansas, a person is considered legally drunk if their BAC is .08 or above for drivers 21 or over. Of the 520 DUIs in Lawrence in 2000, 21 percent of them went to KU students.
In addition to the fine, the driver has to get an alcohol evaluation and follow its recommendations. The evaluation is $125, and treatment can cost from $100 to $1,000, depending on how intensive it is, said Porter, city prosecutor.
Judge Michael Malone said most defendants charged with DUI opted to plead guilty rather than go to trial.
Doing him the sentence is not up to judges, Malone said. They have to impose Kansas' mandatory penalties, which require a first-time offender to spend 48 consecutive hours in jail or perform 100 hours of community service.
"There’solenience," said Porter, the city prosecutor. "It’s pretty much controlled. You can’t plea-bargain down."
A DUI is not a charge that can be reduced in the courtroom.
Choosing between jail or almost three weeks of community service is difficult, said Lambert, who got his DUI on Super Bowl Sunday. He chose jail, spending a five-day sentence there during the summer.
Micah, a KU freshman, said two days in jail was horrible.
"Youhavenorights,basically. You're detained. You have no freedom."
Lambert spent his time watching TV and playing cards, he said, but the experience depressed him enough that he never wants to go back.
"The first thing I did when I got out of jail was sit there and look at the sky because it was the first time I didn't take it for granted." Lambert said.
The cost that keeps costing: insurance
Samuel D. Villeareal, an agent with Miller Insurance, estimated that the majority of his company's clients with DJUs were between 19 and 32 years old.
Miller Insurance, 1424 W. 23rd St., advertises "We specialize in drivers with a not-so-perfect record," and the company won't turn away a DUI offender, Villeareal said. But the costs are much higher for drivers with DUI convictions.
"It can get pretty expensive, and they pay it because no other companies will take them," he said. "They say they're going to go look somewhere else, but they tend to come back two days later and ask, 'What was that rate?'
Kermit Cottrell, Allstate insurance agent, said drivers with DUIs usually had to be switched to a higher risk company because many insurance companies would not insure high-risk drivers.
"Automatically, going from one company to the next you could see your rates double just like that," Cottrell said.
"A DUI is the worst thing that can appear on your driving record as far as an insurance company goes, and there is no excuse." Cottrell said.
A DUI can cost more for drivers under 25 than it does for their older counterparts because young drivers already pay a higher rate.
Gay now pays $128 each month just for liability coverage on his 1985 Dodge pick-up truck, which he said was crazy for a vehicle that old. With the 50 percent hike in his insurance rates, he said he couldn't even consider collision or comprehensive coverage.
the threat to a DUI is the threat to the offender's career, Tonkovich, the district attorney, said she told students.
"A lot of times, the threat of jail is not a real deterrent," Tonkovic said. "I try to emphasize the practical penalties, like the costs, getting into graduate school, law school, being licensed by a state board to be a teacher or doctor. Even if you have somebody foot the bill, you're the one who has to go through a class or treatment or inpatient treatment. It's your time and energy spent to resolve the conviction.
"And this isn't taking into consideration if there is an injury or fatality involved. If you have caused somebody permanent injury, that is something you have to live with for the rest of your life."
SherifTrappa said a DUI conviction or even a diversion would make it hard for a person to become a law enforcement officer.
A DUI offender also has to disclose the conviction to apply to law school or take the bar exam. Tonkovich said.
Rachel Reitz, director of admissions for the University's law school, said a single DUI on an applicant's record would not necessarily keep that person out of law school, but a pattern of alcohol offenses would.
"Wet try to avoid anyone who wouldn't be admitted to the bar," she said.
If the school has to choose between two similar candidates and one has a DUI, the candidate with the clean record would be admitted, she said.
Moving to another state to start a career does not mean the DUI stays behind. A conviction in one state follows a person to any other state, Tranp said.
"Wherever you go, it's going to be there with you," Trapp said. "If you get a DUI in Kansas and you're from Connecticut, Kansas will notify Connecticut, and Connecticut will suspend your license."
Walking the line is a test for officers to measure a potential drunk driver's balance and coordination, but it also requires the driver to carefully remember the instructions given by the officer administering the test. It's estimated that DUI offenders drink drunk 200 to 2,000 times before they are arrested the first time
Karl, a law student graduating this month who was busted for a DUI last spring, said, "The worst thing about it is coming to the realization that you got it and that it sticks with you." He asked that his real name be withheld over concerns that law firms he has applied to would learn about his conviction.
The hidden costs
For some drivers, the notoriously and inconveniences of a DUI add up to more than the dollar costs.
John, a senior, said he had ridden his bike everywhere since he got his DUI last spring.
"It might not be a big deal to you, but it'sa big deal to me," he said, asking that his name not be used.
He said having to ride his bike was cold in the winter, limited where he could work, and made it difficult to start relationships with women because he didn't have transportation for dates.
Micah, a freshman who asked that his real name not be used, is also riding a bike because of his license suspension. He said, "It's not as easy to ask somebody to go on a date." Would you like to go for a bike ride? Do you mind driving?"
Having a car is necessary for more than just dates, said Brian, a former KU student who lost his license for one year after chugging beers at his fraternity. He rides a bus to school.
"I'm still paying the price," Brian said. "I can't go anywhere I want, and I basically live other people's lives. Whatever other people are doing is what I'll be doing because I don't have a car."
Rick, a senior who got a DUI last January, said having to rearrange his schedule around alcohol counseling was a hassle he hadn't expected.
He had to go through two stages—the intensive eight-week stage with all the classes, then aftercare for 10 weeks.
"It was three hours a night for three nights a week," he said.
Counseling also forced him to cut
down his work hours that he needed to repay his parents for the DUI costs.
Suffice would be even higher under legislation Kansas is considering. Sherif Trapp said.
Under the current law, a person with a previous DUI is considered a first-time offender as long as his DUI was more than five years ago. The proposed bill would classify someone as a first-time offender only if he had never had a DUI.
The minimum fine would increase to $500 for $250 for a first offense, and the license reinstitution fee would increase to $200 from $50. For second and third offenses, the bill suggests even tougher penalties.
"It seems the current penalties haven't convinced people to moderate their drinking." Trapp said. "Perhaps it's going to have to get to the point where it's plain not worth it to take the chance."
However, Malone, who has served as a judge in Douglas County for 19 years, said the proposed penalties were too harsh and misdirected.
Malone said he remembered when it was not uncommon to see a person driving down the road with a beer in hand. That person would never have seen jail time when Malone first began judging.
Now the scales have been adjusted too far in the other direction, he said.
"It makes more sense to have an interlock device than to put money in the state coffers," he said. "I would like to see something a little more
Malone would prefer that fines go toward purchasing an ignition interlock device for an offender's vehicle, which would prevent it from being started if the driver was intoxicated. In the current system, only offenders with two or more DUI convictions have to buy the device. Malone prefers the interlock device to bigger fines because it actually keeps drunk people from driving and endangering others.
creative than a little more harsh."
creative than a little more harsh." He said he was concerned that locking people away or taking away their transportation created a vicious cycle in which they lost their job because of the lack of transportation, fell further into despair and turned to drinking once more.
Some of KU's DUI offenders turned their lives around after their convictions.
A fresh start
Rick, the senior who endured intensive treatment, said his DUI had been a turning point.
"Your eyes kind of open up when you're exposed to something like this — how many people drive without getting caught and how long your behavior has gone on without being put in check," he said. "It was a blessing in disguise—the beginning of starting over. It really changed my life."
Gay said his DUI realigned his thinking. He opted to leave Lawrence and the drinking lifestyle he had here behind.
Rick Frydman, local defense attorney, said one of the practical lessons his clients learned from their experiences was that it was cheaper to take a cab or have a designated driver if they felt buzzed.
Micah, the freshman who has problems getting dates on his bike, said he. too, changed his entire lifestyle.
"I used to drink three to 10 beers at a time about eight times a month. Now I drink maybe once a month with a meal," he said.
Brian, who now lives out of state, said he had to change his habits so he wouldn't be tempted to drink.
"You just try and form a pattern that leads you away from the situation that you got led into," he said. "I'm better for it. I'm more knowledgeable about life, not just about drinking."
DUI statistics
Edited by Melissa Cooley
In 1998,42 percent of all alcohol-related fatalities involved a drinking driver less than 26 years old.
About two in every five Kansans will be involved in an alcohol-related crash sometime in their lives.
More than one million people are arrested annually for drunk driving. It's estimated that DUI offenders drive drunk 200 to 2,000 times before they are arrested the first time.
In 1998, 79 people died in alcohol-related crashes on Kansas roadways.
Alcohol-related highway crashes are the leading cause of death for adolescents and young adults in the United States.
The 15,786 fatalities in alcohol-related crashes during 1999 represent an average of one alcohol-related fatality every 33 minutes. About one person was injured every two minutes.
Source: Kansas Department of Transportation, Safe Kids Coalition, Mothers Against Drunk Driving, and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
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