Checkpoints credited
as drunken-driving
deaths decline

Alcohol-related fatal crashes fell
last year to 43 from 72 in 2003

Alcohol-related traffic deaths dropped last year to 43 from 72 in 2003, partly because of stepped-up police enforcement at sobriety checkpoints, police say.

Sobering trend Oahu drunken-driving arrests in recent years: 2000: 2,089 2001: 2,166 2002: 2,188 2003: 2,341 2004: 2,740 as of November; projected to be about 3,000 for year Source: Honolulu Police Department

The number of Oahu drunken driving arrests will probably come in just under 3,000 for 2004, said Honolulu police Traffic Division Maj. Doug Miller. The number of DUI arrests has increased steadily for the past five years, he said.

In 2003 there were 2,341 arrests. As of November there were 2,740 in 2004, an average of more than 200 per month.

"Sobriety checkpoints not only save lives, but decrease property damage and reduce the risk of injury," said Connie Abram, executive director of Mothers Against Drunk Driving-Hawaii.

Miller said, "Our department was concerned with the levels of impaired driving in fatals in 2003, and stepped up our enforcement, as well as our education efforts in the community."

The state Department of Transportation has spent $200,000 in federal funding on an ad campaign to publicize the "52/12" program, in which police statewide set up at least one sobriety checkpoint each week in each county, and the D2 campaign, which provides free soft drinks for designated drivers.

"There's a lot of partners in this effort, but the ultimate partner is the person behind the steering wheel," said state transportation spokesman Scott Ishikawa.

Despite the dramatic 40 percent drop last year, that is 43 too many alcohol-related deaths, says Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

"One is too many," said Evelyn Delos Reyes, whose 18-year-old son, Andrew, and two other passengers were killed when the driver lost control of the car they were in and hit a guardrail on Kaukonahua Road. The driver had been drinking.

A car broadsided their vehicle, killing the Mililani teens on April 12, 2001. The driver, Brian Dade, now 21, was sentenced Nov. 17 to five years in prison for negligent homicide and negligent injury.

More than three years have passed, but Delos Reyes said she has never recovered from the death of her son, a two-time Oahu Interscholastic Association wrestling champion. "When my son was alive, this house was so alive," she said. "He had so much zest for life. The phone would ring, his friends would come over. It feels like the house died with him. I feel like a part of me died, too, with my son."

"I feel like I didn't finish nurturing him," she sobbed. "I didn't get a chance to see him finish high school, to turn into a man or give me grandchildren or get married.

"I keep waiting for him to say, 'I'm ho-o-ome.' I'm still waiting for that and it never happens."

"Maybe you think, 'I can make it home,' but you can kill somebody else," Delos Reyes said.

"You can kill yourself, but think about the innocent you take, the families you wreck. It can never be put back together again," she said. "When Andrew died, he took a piece of each of our hearts."