Cultural shift leads to decline in DUIs

BUFFALO — Drunken driving can be an issue during the holiday season, but as drunken driving awareness month began this month, Johnson County prevention specialist Bill Hawley said he has seen a positive trend.

While DUIs still make up a large percentage of arrests in Wyoming and Johnson County, Hawley said he has seen a cultural shift against drunken driving over the past several years. That’s exactly what it will take to decrease the number of people who get behind the wheel while impaired every year, Hawley said.

Buffalo Police Chief Sean Bissett said a part of that shift has come from programs like the Right Road, which Buffalo High School hosts every year to teach students about the dangers of drunken driving and other drug-related issues. Bissett said programs that are aimed at younger people, such as Right Road, are important to reach people at a young age before they may start drinking.

Hawley said that other campaigns, such as “Puff Puff, Pass the Keys” and “Buzzed Driving Is Drunk Driving” have also made an impact on what needs to be a continued cultural shift in how people think about impaired driving, he said. Young people are better than ever at refusing to get in the car with someone who is drunk, Hawley said.

“I really believe, anecdotally, that they do have a different sense of responsibility,” Hawley said.

Between 1991 and 2022, the national rate of drunken driving fatalities per 100,000 population has decreased by 35% in total and 70% among those younger than 21, according to data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Wyoming was below the national average for the percentage of alcohol-related traffic fatalities in 2022, at 30% compared with the national average of 32%.

However, DUIs remain one of the most common and impactful crimes in the state, according to the latest report from the Wyoming Association of Sheriffs and Chiefs of Police. According to the report, DUI arrests accounted for 32.47% of all reported arrests in 2023. Over the past 10 years, a third of all traffic fatalities are the result of impaired driving.

Bissett said he hopes to be proactive. If officers happen to see somebody stumbling out of an establishment, they won’t wait until that person gets behind the wheel. They will try to prevent that individual from making the wrong choice, Bissett said.

“There’s no numbers game,” he said. “Believe it or not, we don’t get paid extra for tickets.”

Proactivity mainly relies on the community, however, said Bissett.

“I think the biggest thing is (to) have a plan,” he said. “If you go out and have too much, call somebody.”

Bissett and Hawley said a really valuable way to plan ahead for a night that will involve drinking is to find a designated driver.

“If I could have zero DUIs, that’s my ultimate goal,” Bissett said.

This story was published on December 5, 2024.