Drunk Driving Takes Back Seat to Radical Political Agenda
Posted July 6, 2007

According to an AAA survey, approximately 1.15 million New Jerseyans are traveling for the July 4 th holiday between June 29 and July 8 of this year. Of these, 81 percent will be hitting the roadways, and AAA has predicted an “incredibly busy” situation on our state’s highways as vacationers return to their homes toward the end of this week.

As with any major holiday, increased roadway traffic this 4 th of July has led to heightened concern for traveler safety and intensified alertness among law enforcement officers to drunk drivers amid the holiday’s returning revelers.

In 2006, sixteen people were killed in car accidents on New Jersey’s roadways over the 4 th of July holiday. According to State Police Superintendent Rick Fuentes, nearly half of these deaths were alcohol-related.

Looking at annual statistics from 2003-2005, the numbers become even more tragic. A 2006 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration release reported that in 2003, 38% (279) of the 733 traffic fatalities in New Jersey were alcohol-related. In 2004, the number was 37% (270) of 731 fatalities, and in 2005, alcohol was a factor in 35% (263) of the state’s 748 traffic fatalities.

Although these numbers fall short of the national average for the same three-year period (40%, 39%, and 40%), with even one death being one too many, what has New Jersey been doing to address drunk driving for the long-term – and not just over the holidays, but year-round?

Sadly, at least for the past several years, the answer has been, “not that much.”

Back in 1998, in the same report in which it noted, “There is little or no data on the effectiveness of existing New Jersey programs for the drunk driving offender,” the Senate Task Force on Alcohol Related Motor Vehicle Accidents and Fatalities, recommended the following:

A permanent commission should be created to study the efficacy of legislative changes. This could be similar to the State Commission on Drunk Driving which studied the problem of drunk driving from the mid-1980’s through the early 1990’s. (Cited in Driving Under the Influence Task Force, Final Report, April 24, 2007).

Despite the recommendation, no such “permanent commission” was established.

In August of last year, under requests from the New Jersey Association of County Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Directors and the County of Monmouth, the New Jersey Division of Addiction Services (DAS) established the Driving Under the Influence (DUI) Task Force to consider existing and future programs for intoxicated drivers.

Among the recommendations of the Task Force was to re-establish the New Jersey Drunk Driving Commission. Remember? The “permanent commission” that the Task Force recommended be established back in 1998?

While losing unrecoverable time in the fight against drunk driving fatalities, what exactly has our state been doing? Apparently it hasn’t been too busy for some commissions, as last month marked the first meeting of the state’s newly-created Civil Union Review Commission, tasked with studying and evaluating the implementation of the state’s Civil Union Act.

While hundreds of New Jerseyans perish each year as a result of alcohol-related automobile accidents, it seems our state is more concerned with proselytizing the homosexual agenda than with saving innocent lives.

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