Published on Friday, September 8, 2006
in the Ft. Myers News-Press

Drunken Driving Deaths On Rise

LAKELAND -- Deaths from drunken driving are up by double digits statewide, according to the most recent numbers collected by the Florida Highway Patrol.

The number of alcohol-related deaths rose from 1,093 in 2004 to 1,239 in 2005, a 13.4 percent increase.

"I can say the numbers going up that great is surprising," said Trooper Larry Coggins, spokesman for the FHP.

Law enforcement is doing everything it can to curb drinking and driving, but alcohol remains a popular way for people to celebrate, he said.

Polk County also experienced a large spike in drunken driving deaths. Alcohol-related deaths rose from 40 in 2004 to 49 in 2005, a 22.5 percent increase.

Coggins said the Highway Patrol handled 22 of those accidents. He said 16 of the deaths were the drunken drivers, themselves. In the other six accidents, someone else died and the drunken driver went to jail, he said.

Polk is affected by many factors, Coggins said. First, the county is very large and would naturally have higher numbers than a smaller county. Second, a busy interstate highway crosses through the county, increasing the potential for crashes.

Driving isn't the only way alcohol can cause a traffic death. Polk also had an 53.3 percent increase in pedestrian deaths, from 15 in 2004 to 23 in 2005. Though alcohol is not involved in every pedestrian death, Coggins said it often is a factor.

"We do see a number of pedestrians who are impaired and walk out into traffic," he said.

In addition to drunken driving deaths, the total number of crashes and traffic deaths in Florida and in Polk are up.

Florida's crashes rose from 252,902 in 2004 to 268,605 in 2005, a 6.2 percent increase. Deaths were up statewide from 3,257 to 3,533, an 8.5 percent increase.

Polk's crashes rose from 7,522 in 2004 to 7,948 in 2005, a 5.7 percent increase. However, the county only had one more death from 142 to 143, an increase of less than one percent.

The Polk County portion of Interstate 4 saw two fatal crashes in 2005. This year, Coggins said the number is already up to 7. He said construction wasn't a factor in any of them.

Bicycle deaths doubled in Polk from 3 to 6 between 2004 and 2005. But motorcycle deaths were down, from 17 to 14.

Coggins said there may be another factor at play in Florida's crash spikes.

"Once again we have population growth, which is on the rise," he said. "Industry is growing too, which is bringing people. And, unfortunately, people get into crashes."

He said the FHP doesn't plan on any special drunken driving crackdown efforts as a result of the new numbers. He said stopping drunken drivers is always the agency's priority, its "bread and butter."

"The main goal we have is for the (crash and death) numbers to go down and for people to get to where they're going safely," he said.