Officials begin 3-week period of increased DUI enforcement

By Kyle B. Hansen

Friday, Aug. 19, 2011 | 2:14 p.m.

Someone becomes a murder victim every 31 minutes in the United States. But someone dies in a traffic crash every 14 minutes, and nearly one-third of those involve impaired drivers.

That’s one reason this year’s Labor Day drunken-driving enforcement is beginning early in Southern Nevada. Officials held a news conference Friday to kick off the three-week enforcement period.

Local law enforcement agencies will have extra officers on the roads looking for traffic violations, and especially for motorists who might be under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

The agencies will be working together across jurisdictions: A driver could be pulled over by a Mesquite Police officer in North Las Vegas or Henderson, for example.

“We will pull you over for anything and everything we can,” Nevada Highway Patrol Sgt. Kevin Honea said. “If we smell alcohol, we will do a field sobriety test.”

Police also will perform multiple DUI checkpoints in the region, including one on Sunday on Lakeshore Road in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area. Another will be Sept. 3 in the southern valley.

In 2009, 243 people died on Nevada roads, 68 of whom were in alcohol-related crashes, according to data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Officials said motorists who drive under the influence don’t fit a stereotype, and the problem isn’t always alcohol. Just ask stay-at-home mom Darlene Adams.

A decade ago, an accident led to her reliance on prescription pain medications.

“I’m in pain and I’m only thinking of myself,” she said. “I don’t read the bottle, and I get in trouble, and I get in trouble and I don’t realize there’s a problem. Since I don’t realize there’s a problem, I don’t get help.”

After multiple DUI arrests, she was ordered to go through a training program. She hasn’t used drugs since 2006.

Adams warns that people have to be more aware of the drugs they are using, prescription or otherwise.

“You’ve got to be informed, you’ve got to ask the right questions and be responsible,” she said. “I didn’t even know you could get addicted to the stuff a doctor gives you. It’s not heroin, it’s not crack, but it’s just as deadly.”

And it can happen to anybody, she said. “You think it would be some bum walking down the street, but it’s the homemaker, the soccer moms.”

Justice of the Peace William Kephart said a DUI conviction can cost more than a round trip taxi fare between Las Vegas and New York, so taking a cab or using a designated driver is also financially smart.

“If you’re going to drink and drive, think about how much that drink is going to cost,” he said.

Metro Police Lt. Leonard Marshall said putting extra officers on a saturation patrol to look for impaired drivers usually leads to more arrests than a DUI checkpoint. But the checkpoints are more visible and help to get the word out, he said.

Marshall said he hopes if people know police are on the lookout, they won’t drink and drive in the first place.

“We want the public to know we do checkpoints,” he said.