Drunken drivers may get coroner’s guided tour

Tuesday, Oct. 31, 2006 | 7:24 a.m.

Drive drunk in Las Vegas and you could find yourself in the coroner's office - dead or alive.

The Las Vegas City Council recently changed the city's DUI law to allow judges to send offenders on an in-depth tour of the coroner's facilities as part of their sentence.

The goal is to drive home the consequences of getting behind the wheel drunk not just to offenders, but to other motorists and pedestrians as well.

"Hopefully we can give people a look at the problem and get them to understand the finality of their decisions," Coroner Michael Murphy said.

The program, set to begin Dec. 1, is patterned after a similar venture for youthful offenders that officials say has been successful.

Participants will be put in full protective gear and given a comprehensive tour of the Clark County facility.

"We want them to experience all of the sights, sounds and smells of the coroner's office," Murphy said.

Out of respect to victims, program participants will not view corpses, but the visit will include a trip to the refrigeration area where bodies are kept.

Other elements of the program are still being developed and could include testimonials from people whose lives have been affected by DUI offenders. Murphy said he has sought input from several groups including other coroner's offices, the Victim Impact Panel and Stop DUI.

Clark County Commission Chairman Rory Reid and Las Vegas Councilman Steve Wolfson moved the program forward, Murphy said.

"This gives another tool to municipal judges trying to address this problem," said Wolfson, a former hearing master at coroner's inquests.

In 2004, Metro Police cited 3,948 people for driving under the influence and 43 deaths resulted from DUI-related accidents. Last year those numbers jumped to 4,243 and 61 respectively.

Add to that the 2,328 people cited for DUI by the Southern Command of the Nevada Highway Patrol, which includes Clark County, and that comes to more than 6,500 impaired drivers on valley highways last year. And those are just the ones who got caught.

State Trooper Kevin Honea, a Highway Patrol Southern Command spokesman, said the numbers make it imperative to explore new methods to try to stem the problem.

"Anything we can do to get involved, to get people to call a cab or do something besides get behind the wheel, is worth pursuing," he said.

Officials hope the adult program can have an effect similar to that achieved by the juvenile program.

In 2002, the year the juvenile program started, 86 youths were charged with driving under the influence, 66 of them for alcohol. Last year those numbers dropped to 73 and 59, respectively, according to the Clark County Juvenile Justice Services Department.

Any youth is eligible for the juvenile offender program.

That program focuses on two groups: at-risk children and those who already have committed a crime. The program has been so successful that parents whose children have no criminal history have asked, and been permitted, to have their kids participate.

Some have flown children in from as far away as Texas to take part in the program, Murphy said.

The adult program, though, is designed only for DUI offenders.

Although officials admit it might be more difficult to influence adults than teens, they believe the program can be successful, in part because it will deal with many first-time offenders.

Las Vegas Municipal Judge Betsy Kolkoski, who oversees the DUI Court, hopes that by getting to offenders earlier, their behavior can be changed, ultimately reducing the number of multiple-DUI cases.

"I'm totally supportive of seeing if this program can make an impact," Kolkoski said.

Circumstances that could require impaired drivers to participate in the program include an accident, a blood alcohol content of 0.18 or more (the legal limit is 0.08), the use of controlled substances or an offense by someone under age 26.

Judges have expressed concern that the program might not be able to accommodate the rising number of offenders. Waits of two or three months are not uncommon in the juvenile offender program, Kolkoski said.

But Murphy, who said his office has planned for an anticipated high volume, expects to be able to accommodate everyone sent to visit his office.

"It's better to take them through the front door now than the back door later," he said.