In late March, two Des Moines police officers were transferring an inmate near Waukee. And then tragedy struck. A drunk driver hurtled at more than 100 mph on the wrong side of the Interstate. When the smoke had cleared, the driver, officers, and inmate were dead. And in the month since, the blood-alcohol level of the driver has been released. He was driving with an astonishing 0.221. Drunk driving is on the rise in Iowa, and the scene that played out in March is part of a much larger trend.
The Iowa Department of Transportation has the statistics on OWI, and they are disheartening. The average blood-alcohol content of motorists pulled over while impaired has risen four years in a row to a level twice the legal limit. Subsequently, deaths involving intoxicated drivers have increased. OWI took 123 lives in 2015; this is especially discouraging, because the overall number of deaths in motor-vehicle accidents has decreased.
Unfortunately, Iowa’s trend is not unique. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has found that while the number of overall deaths because of automobile accidents has declined, the number of deaths from impaired drivers is unchanged. There is little the federal government can do at the national level, because, obviously, traffic laws are the domain of state governments. The problem facing the Iowa Legislature is worse than the national problem: The death toll is on the rise.
What baffles the mind is the number of Iowa license revocations because of OWI charges. The Iowa DOT reports that the number of licenses revoked for OWI has dropped steadily since 2008, and of those revoked, Polk, Johnson, and Linn Counties rack up the most infractions and subsequent suspensions. While the numbers may be cause for some concern in these counties, it is important to remember the population density in these three counties compared with Iowa’s other 96 counties.
Many think changes have to be made at the state level, such as an increase in the penalties of an OWI or a lowering of the legal blood-alcohol content. The Legislature has refused to move on the subject, consistently voting down propositions that would bring such moves into reality. Again, Iowa is not unique in this regard, either. No state government has lowered its legal blood-alcohol-content levels, while across the Atlantic, European countries have made the change.
There is a larger global movement to lower the blood-alcohol limit and increase the penalties for OWI. The shift in culture has not occurred in the United States, but it needs to happen.
The Daily Iowan Editorial Board believes it is imperative that the state of Iowa reduce the number of drunk drivers on the road. Iowa’s current condition is one in which deaths from intoxicated drivers make up a large percentage of automobile deaths, especially compared with other states in the nation. To reduce the number of tragic car accidents, the Legislature needs to increase the penalties for OWI, because too many people have lost their lives because of intoxicated motorists. New laws might not be enough to make change happen quickly, and the state should invest in more public-health campaigns and alcohol education to reduce the number of deaths caused by drunk driving.
