By EMMA BARTLETT

On average, Rhode Island experiences 3,000 DUI arrests a year. According to the Rhode Island Department of Transportation (RIDOT), the average offender in these arrests has a blood alcohol content of approximately .17 – which is more than twice the legal limit. Arthur Martins, who serves as the Rhode Island Police Chiefs Association is the coordinator of the new Impaired Driving Engagement Council which seeks to reduce the state’s number of driving impairment fatalities.

“Rhode Island has been identified as a ‘mid-range’ state that has a high percentage of its driving fatalities related to motor vehicle operators who were driving impaired,” said Martins in a press release. “A ‘mid-range’ state is identified by NHTSA as one in which the impaired driving fatality rate is between 30 percent and 60 percent.” 

According to the release, in 2018, Rhode Island’s fatalities were at 38 percent while the rest of the country was at 29 percent. In 2019, Rhode Island had 44 percent of fatalities while the U.S. saw 28 percent.

In a Friday interview, Martins said numbers are trending in the wrong direction and called for some type of action – leading to the development of the Impaired Driving Engagement Council in fall of 2021. This initiative is a collaboration with RIDOT, Rhode Island Police Chiefs’ Association (RIPCA) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The council’s goal is to reduce the incidences of impaired driving through deterrence, prevention, communication, education and treatment. The council (composed of 20 to 25 individuals from different organizations and groups) will host its first meeting this week.

“We can’t arrest our way out of this problem,” Martins said.

While Rhode Island had roughly 3,000 DUI arrests last year, Martins expects to see an increase in the 2021 data due to a new Rhode Island State Police unit dedicated to DUI enforcement; this unit was implemented a year and a half ago.

On a local level, Cranston sees between 90 and 108 DUI arrests per year. Cranston Chief of Police Colonel Michael Winquist said his department is already taking efforts to address impaired driving. The department has eight specially trained drug recognition experts (DRE) who receive 80 hours of intensive training to determine if an individual is impaired. There are 90 drug recognition experts in Rhode Island, and Winquist said Cranston has the second highest number of experts in the state. Winquist plans to send more officers to the training to increase their numbers.

Martins said the highest group of individuals arrested for DUI are men between ages 30 and 50. Dana Deverna, who works as a program coordinator for Comprehensive Community Action Plan, explained that most federal grants concerning DUI prevention are for younger age groups, so this older group has been an untouched population.

Deverna said the number of impaired driving arrests decreased during the pandemic, people were drinking at home during Covid and alcoholism has gone up. When people resume drinking outside the home, there could be an increase of impaired drivers on the road.

“We’re not anti-alcohol, anti-excessive consumption and driving,” Martins said.

Impaired driving does not apply strictly to being under the influence of alcohol. Martins said the legalization of marijuana is a top concern which the police predict will increase the number of driving impaired fatalities within the state.

“Especially in young kids, it affects IQ, the ability to learn and success in school,” Martins said.

Martins referenced a study in Colorado that showed an increase in impaired driving fatalities due to the legalization of marijuana. Deverna said that while kids understand the problem of drinking and driving and the health risks to smoking cigarettes, they don’t see a problem with smoking marijuana or eating an edible. A Young Adult Survey (RIYAS) found that only 12 percent of students indicated that ingesting marijuana once or twice a week was a great risk. 

Winquist said his department had a case in Cranston Public Schools where a younger student below the high school level brought edibles from home and passed them out to classmates. The students all became sick and were brought to the hospital.

Deverna said it’s only a matter of time before marijuana is legalized in Rhode Island and is looking at efforts to help younger age groups.

Martins said emerging technology known as oral fluid has promising results of showing the level of marijuana, opioids and cocaine intoxication within an impaired driver’s blood. This program is currently being piloted in Michigan and Alabama and can be administered on the roadside which will give a clearer level of intoxication. The longer you wait to take a test, the more the substance has been metabolized.

Impaired driving tragedies tend to be more prominent at holidays and celebrations including New Years, Super Bowl parties, spring break, graduations, proms, July 4th, Thanksgiving, Christmas and homecoming games.

Martins said the key elements the council will look into are prevention, enforcement, treatment, education, awareness and substance abuse. At this week’s meeting the council will discuss the focus areas they’d like to address and narrow it down to one or two topics. For now, the meetings are not open to the public and Martins said down the road potentially having the media invited. Ideally, Martins would like to hold council meetings every other month, but times are still being worked out.

The stakeholders and Council members will include subject matters experts and representatives from the following groups, organizations or agencies: Law enforcement, both State Police and Municipal agencies; Prosecutors; Court personnel; RI Department of Transportation; RI Department of Health; RI Crime Lab; Drug and alcohol abuse related representatives; Youth Driven (local youth and child traffic safety organization); Medical professionals; Prevention, treatment and rehabilitation providers; Education officials (college and local) and student groups (SADD); Insurance industry; Alcohol and hospitality industries; Citizen activist groups such as MADD; Representatives from AAA; Faith-based representation.