Do your part to stop drunken driving

Drunken driving crash fatalities increase substantially during Christmas and New Years. While celebrating this holiday season, we should all remember the old phrase "friends don't let friends drive drunk."

The Alliance Against Intoxicated Motorists (AAIM) also wants to alert everyone that, contrary to popular belief, the vast majority (estimated as high as 80 percent) of drunken driving crash fatalities that occur on our roadways are caused by drinking drivers who have not yet been arrested for DUI.

We are all angered by the too common repeat DUI offenders who do not learn from the legal penalties and sanctions, who continue to drink and drive, who ultimately kill. Certainly we are rightfully outraged by these repeated crimes.

However, we must also be very concerned by the drinking drivers or "friends" who think that, particularly because they have never even been arrested, they can drive drunk but they will never kill or injure someone. In fact, for most aggravated DUI and reckless homicide offenders, their very first encounter with law enforcement is when someone is dead or seriously injured.

Those who work to prevent impaired driving tragedies often say, "If you're driving drunk you're lucky if it is a cop that stops you. You're so very lucky if it is a cop that stops you rather than a tree, another car or a small child. If you're driving under the influence, you should be so lucky that all you lose is your driver's license."

Illinois is doing good work to stop drunk driving. Law enforcement has extra programs during this season, particularly sobriety checkpoints. And, starting at midnight on Dec. 31, we will have the tough new law requiring all DUI offenders to place an ignition interlock device on their vehicles. But good law enforcement and good laws are not the only important components for ending these senseless crashes and saving lives.

Impaired driving is one social problem that each of us can help solve. By simply following the usual tips - don't drink and drive, designate a sober driver, take a bus, call a friend or a taxi for a pickup, only ride with a sober driver - we can all contribute toward a safe and sane holiday season.

Please go the next step and get actively involved. Be a friend to yourself and to others, remember "friends don't let friends drive drunk."

AAIM knows very well that the life you save will be the life of someone's loved one or friend.

Marti Belluschi

Alliance Against Intoxicated Motorists (AAIM)