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Believe it or not: PA receives 2009 National Road Safety Award
November 11, 2009
The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation (PennDOT) received high marks from the U.S. Department of Transportation for its impaired driving program. This month U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood presented PennDOT with a 2009 National Road Safety Award. PennDOT's award winning program educates people on the dangers of driving under the influence (DUI), removes impaired drivers from Pennsylvania road ways, and punishes motorists who are caught driving under the influence (DUI). In 2008, police in Pennsylvania arrested over 56,000 motorists for DUI. This included 9,100 arrests of PA drivers who were driving under the influence of drugs. There were 12,752 alcohol-related PA car accidents in 2008, which is a 10-year low for the Commonwealth. As for the educational aspect of the program, PennDOT utilizes district judge outreach, police training in drug recognition, and implementation of technology devices such as Ignition Interlock. Ignition Interlock is a device installed on vehicles to prohibit persons under the influence of alcohol from operating the vehicle. Under current PA law, a person convicted of a second or subsequent DUI offense is required to have an Ignition Interlock device installed on each car they own, lease, or operate for one year following the license suspension period. In his acceptance of the award, PennDOT Secretary Allen D. Biehler, P.E. stated, "We're honored to have our impaired driving program recognized as one of the national leaders." Biehler stressed the importance of PennDOT's efforts and success in working closely with Pennsylvania's law enforcement branches. In doing so, there has been a great reduction in the number of PA car accidents involving impaired driving.
1 comments:
there are about 2567 municipalities in pennsyvania.
so, ..at 56,000 dui arrests, that an average of about 22 arrests a year per town. Or 1 about every 2 1/2 weeks per town.
or another way to look at it , about 156 dui arrests per day in the state.
there are about 12.5 million people in pennslyvania.
56,000 people arrested for dui, is about 0.5% of the population of the state.
another way to look at it is this, ... 1 out of every 200 peoplee in pennsylvania were arrested for dui.
now , take into account have the people are either under driving age or too old to drive, or dont drive, ......
so 1 out of every 100 motorists in pennsylvanias was arrested for dui last year.
This sounds like a very high number to me because we can assume that maybe 5% of all dui drivers actually get arrested for dui, ...
that would mean another 19 out of 100 motorists got away with it.
Apopilation of a state which has 20% of its morotarist driving over the legal limit at least one time durting the year, sounds like a need to study why need to be adressed.
As you know in my case, in nj, i was arrested for a first offense dui in september of 2005, .. no accident, routine traffic stop, ..... and i will be making my 31 st court appearance in december at the 50 month mark, without getting a trial, ...
if the stats in penn holds true for nj, ..... i have had over 4 years of the middle of my life ripped away from me, living in limbo waiting for an outcome, .... while over a million people during the 4 plus years have gotten away with it.
i can see arrests being needed, .. but i cant see what happened to me as being just on any level.
jim
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