Quantcast

Queens Seniors Most Vulnerable On DWI Local DWI Arrest Rate Triples Since 1994

The arrest rate of Queens motorists driving under the influence of alcohol, drugs, or over-the-counter medicines has tripled during the past five years (from 1994-95 to 1998-99) according to figures obtained by The Queens Courier from the Queens District Attorney’s Office.
The study revealed that Queens’ DWI arrest rate, which averaged one motorist every 29 hours in 1994-95, has soared to one every eight hours during the past year.
Significantly, over-40 drivers have helped trigger the accelerated pace of arrests: over-40 drivers who made up less than 28 percent of DWI arrests five years ago, now make up nearly 40 percent of the total.
Intensifying this impact, Queens District Attorney Richard A. Brown has been required by law to seize the vehicles driven by the guilty motorists since last February.
Bernadette Ford, Deputy Chief of the Criminal Court Bureau of the Queens district Attorney’s Office, told members of the Queens Traffic Safety Board that this rapidly increasing arrest rate had even more serious implications for older Queens motorists:
• During the past year, this rate for over-40 motorists has ballooned to a 414 percent increase, or twice the pace of the borough’s younger drivers.
• Even more surprising, has been the rapidly increasing number of senior (60 and older) drivers, who were arrested nearly twice as often this year than in the previous 12 months, and nearly three times as often than five years ago.
Ford told the safety conference that Queens’ aging population, many of whom drive, are more vulnerable because they are taking a wider variety of prescribed medications, that are commonly associated with advancing years. Citing medications for diabetes, Parkinson’s, asthma, heart, hypertension, arthritis or even common ibuprofen pain killers, she said that many of them cause drowsiness, which in turn, makes drivers legally impaired to operate a vehicle.
According to the New York Coalition for Transportation Safety, drivers taking medicine for these ailments often become legally impaired if they combine them with over-the-counter anti-cold medications containing alcohol or codeine.
Tests show that patients taking certain eye drops, for example, may, accidentally initiate a DWI arrest after taking a spoonful of such common remedies as Robitussin maximum strength or Dimetapp. Motorists mistakenly believe that these DWI charges will be dropped once it is proved that it was a prescription medication, and not alcohol, that was responsible for the arrest. Since drunk or impaired drivers no longer face a random desk hearing, senior citizen arrests are often traumatic. The State Vehicle and Traffic Law requires that impaired motorists are to be booked, and can be held overnight in jail.
At the meeting, Queens Borough President Claire Shulman expressed alarm that the public was largely unaware that motorists taking one or more drugs in combination with other medications, alcohol, or even other foods, could have its ability impaired to operate a vehicle safely. She also warned of the potential danger when alcoholic drinks were taken, at the same time that over-the-counter drugs containing ibuprofen, antihistimines, and cold syrups containing codeine.
A concerned Brown told The Queens Courier "We’re trying to get the word out to seniors that driving while impaired by prescription drugs, or driving while under the influence of prescription drugs, is the same offense under the law as driving while impaired or under the influence of cocaine, heroin or alcohol." He strongly urged seniors who are required to take certain prescription drugs not to drink alcohol and get behind the wheel.
The New York State Vehicle and Traffic Law deals harshly with DWI violations. Conviction of having .10 percent or more blood alcohol content may not only result in imprisonment up to one year, but a mandatory six month suspension of a driver’s license as well as the car. Conviction is also punishable by fines ranging from $500 to $1,000.
In addition, motorists convicted of driving while impaired by a drug or by alcohol (DWI .06-.09 percent) are punishable by fines ranging from $300 to $500, or by imprisonment for not more than 15 days, or both.
This year, New York City law has become even harsher. Since last February, a little more than half of 2,514 city motorists arrested for DWI lost their vehicles. Last week, the Appellate Division of the New York State Supreme Court upheld the City’s car-seizure policy which found "a strong public interest in withholding a car from a DWI defendant."
Shulman has already ordered the free distribution of a pamphlet "How Medications and Alcohol Effect Driving Skills" to senior centers and interest organizations. The eight-section leaflet spells out explicit guidelines for motorists, taking medications.
The wide-ranging, updated, pamphlet was prepared by the New York Coalition for Transportation Safety, in collaboration with the New York Hospital Medical Center of Queens. Funding was provided by Shulman’s office and New York Hospital.