By: Kenneth Stecker
In the past few decades, our society has become all too familiar with the terrible tragedies of drunk driving. Just recently, Frances Dingle was sentenced in Macomb County to 22 1/2 to 25 years in prison for her plea to second-degree murder and operating while intoxicated in connection with a crash that killed four teenagers.
Our society is also becoming aware of the dangers with distractions such as text messaging or talking on a cell phone. Effective, July 1, 2010, Michigan made a major change to legislation that would ban motorists from texting while driving as they made the violation a primary offense, allowing police to ticket drivers for texting without having to first pull them over for committing another infraction.
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Yet, there is another growing problem that Michigan faces, and that is “drugged driving.” Drugged driving poses threats to public safety and welfare of Michigan citizens. It is well known that drugs, even those prescribed by a physician, can impair perception, judgment, motor skills, and memory. Recent surveys have shown how pervasive drugged driving has become in the United States.
The National Roadside Survey of Alcohol and Drug Use by Drivers, a survey by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), found that in 2007, 16 percent of weekend nighttime drivers (roughly one in six) tested positive for licit or illicit drugs. Moreover, approximately one in ten high school seniors responding to the 2008 Monitoring the Future Study (MTF) reported driving after smoking marijuana within two weeks prior to the survey interview. These results highlight the seriousness of drugged driving, and reinforce the importance of traffic safety enforcement in this area.
How is Michigan Addressing Drugged Driving?
Through the tremendous support of the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning (OHSP), efforts to further reduce drugged driving in the state continue to be addressed through a number of avenues, including training programs. An example of such training is the Advanced Roadside Impaired Driving Enforcement (ARIDE) training.
ARIDE training was developed by NHTSA with input from the IACP and the Virginia Association of Chiefs of Police. ARIDE was created to address the gap in impaired driving training between SFST and the Drug Evaluation and Classification (DEC) Program, commonly referred to as the Drug Recognition Expert (DRE) Training Program.
ARIDE bridges the gap between these two programs by providing police officers with general knowledge related to drug impairment and by promoting the use of DREs in states that have the DEC Program.
Significantly, ARIDE requires students to demonstrate their SFST proficiency. The ARIDE program also stresses the importance of securing the most appropriate biological sample in order to identify substances likely to cause impairment.
ARIDE is not intended to replace DRE training, which is much more intensive and skill-based. ARIDE is not a prerequisite for DRE training, but officers who complete ARIDE may decide to enhance their skills and complete DRE training. For states that do not yet provide DRE training, or for agencies with limited training budgets, ARIDE meets the need for increasing officers’ knowledge base for identifying drugs that impair driving. In addition, ARIDE helps to promote the DEC Program and the use of DREs.
If you are interested in attending the ARIDE Program, please contact Sergeant Michelle Robinson of the Michigan State Police at (517) 322-1507 or RobinsoM1@michigan.gov.
Additionally, in the past 6 months, with the support of OHSP, the Prosecuting Attorneys Association of Michigan has put on the following training for prosecutors and law enforcement throughout the state to help better address this issue:
Protecting Lives, Saving Futures: This impaired driving training program was developed by the American Prosecutors Research Institute’s National Traffic Law Center, with input from NHTSA and the IACP. The program is designed to train both law enforcement and prosecutors in a single class in detecting, apprehending, and prosecuting impaired drivers. The program brings law enforcement officers and prosecutors together as a team to successfully prosecute impaired driving violators. It also helps ease the challenges and difficulties that prosecutors and law enforcement officers face in impaired driving cases.
Prosecuting the Drugged Driver: Prosecuting the Drugged Driver is a curriculum developed in cooperation by NHTSA and the National Traffic Law Center. The course is designed to build a team of prosecutors and law enforcement officers to help detect, apprehend, and prosecute impaired drivers. Prosecutors and law enforcement officers participate in interactive training classes taught by a multidisciplinary faculty.
The course includes an overview of the drug-impaired driving problem in the United States. Learning about drug categories, signs, and symptoms of drug influence, and the role of toxicology in these cases will assist the prosecutor to effectively and persuasively present this information in court.
Lethal Weapon DUI Vehicular Homicide: This 2 1/2-day course is designed for the experienced DUI prosecutor. It highlights the importance of creating and improving police–prosecutor teams in investigating and prosecuting vehicular homicide cases. It features extensive presentations on crash reconstruction, including direct and cross-examination of crash re-constructionists. Additional topics include the role of the prosecutor at the scene of a fatality and working with hostile witnesses and with victims’ families.
PAAM intends to offer the above-mentioned seminars again in the near future.
In conclusion, a crash involving drugged driving is one of the most frequently committed crimes in the United States. The above-mentioned training courses will assist law enforcement officers and prosecutors to fight drugged driving, and make Michigan’s highways a safer place to drive.
Editor’s Note:The roadside report can be found online at www.nhtsa.dot.gov. Monitoring the Future is available online at www.monitoringthefuture.org. Weekend Nighttime Drivers Testing Positive for Drugs, by Drug Category Source: 2007 National Roadside Survey of Alcohol and Drug Use by Drivers: Drug Results, U.S. Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, December 2009. Note: “Medications” includes prescription and over‐the‐counter drugs. Percentages are weighted. Results are based on oral fluid and blood testing; 83.7 percent of drivers tested negative for drugs.
For more information on PAAM training programs, please contact Kenneth Stecker, Traffic Safety Resource Prosecutor, at (517) 334-6060 or e-mail at steckerk@michigan.gov.
