Last year, two people lost their lives in Lawrence County, the victims of a drinking or drunk driver. Last year, law enforcement officials in Lawrence County made more than 400 DUI arrests. At least five people have been arrested this year for multiple offense DUI incidents.

April is Alcohol Awareness Month in Ohio. Authorities say that in spite of their best efforts, some people still are not getting the message that drinking and driving is against the law. Still others are willing to risk it, regardless of the penalties.

Behind the Wheel

Ohio State Highway Patrol Lawrence County post commander Lt. Carl Roark said that his troopers alone made 381 DUI arrests last year. That is an increase over the 352 arrests during 2001. These statistics do not reflect the number of DUI arrests made by municipal or county agencies.

"I'd say that troopers on the 11 p.m. shift spend about 30 percent of their time with impaired driver arrests," said Roark. "To put it in better perspective, 30 percent of the fatal crashes involve alcohol. Troopers are not only spending their time with impaired driver arrests but they're also burdened with investigations of crashes that would not have occurred without alcohol being involved."

His sentiments are echoed by Proctorville Patrolman Jeff Rood. "If you work midnights here, that's your big thing."

Proctorville Police Chief Jamie Pruitt said he has seen a decrease in DUI charges in the last year: Proctorville police stopped 45 drinking drivers in 2002. Pruitt said that in the previous year that figure was probably anywhere from 60 to 75 people. Still, drinking drivers continue to drain the resources of law enforcement agencies.

"A DUI will tie up an officer for an hour- if everything goes smoothly," Pruitt said. "One night this week we had an officer who handled a DUI. The driver and both passengers had been drinking. He was busy with this one call for four hours. They (the driver and passengers) were from out of town. They were all underage. They all tested just above the limit; since they were from Wisconsin and they were working in Gallipolis, there was no one who could come and pick them up. The officer had to stay with them to give them time for the alcohol content to drop enough to where one of them could drive."

For a village the size of Proctorville, a single DUI in a night can pose a manpower problem: the patrolman who answered that call, Bill Murphy, was the only officer Proctorville had working that night.

"When this happens, it pulls the officer off the street to handle other crimes," Pruitt said.

Attempted Deception

Roark said that in order for a person to be arrested for DUI, they must demonstrate that they are driving while they are "appreciably impaired." That determination is not based solely on blood alcohol level, but on whether that person is able to safely operate a motor vehicle.

"Alcohol does affect one's judgment," Roark said. "They would not make the decisions they would make had they not been using alcohol - and that starts with the first drink."

One incident that stands out in Roark's mind is the arrest that took place several years ago when he was working in the Dayton area.

"He had all the indications: blood-shot eyes, strong odor of alcohol, and he could walk and talk fairly well," Roark said. "But when we tested him, he tested at .37. For most people, that would be comatose. He had a very high tolerance."

Pruitt said he once pulled over a man for DUI, only to discover it was the man's 15th arrest.

"Those charges stemmed back 20 years," Pruitt said." For these people, there's really not much you can say to them. They pretty much know the routine. They've been through it before."

Pruitt remembered one DUI arrest one chilly winter night where the driver had his head sticking out the window of his car.

"It was 25 degrees outside. He was so intoxicated he turned on the air conditioner instead of the defrost and his window got so fogged up he couldn't see. So he had rolled down the window and stuck his head out to drive the car."

"I stopped a lady once who was going, I'd say 13 miles an hour, and still couldn't keep it straight. I didn't even have to step on the gas pedal (to follow her)," Rood said. "She was this elderly woman and she had been out all night long. I pulled her over in the daytime. She tested .295. She probably would have tested higher but she was sick and she couldn't blow hard enough on the breathalyzer. She said she was sorry."

A run for the border

Situated on the border between two states, many Lawrence County communities find they adopt other state's problems, and vice versa. Pruitt estimates that 80 percent of the DUI's handled by his department involve people who do not live in Proctorville but are passing through on their way to and from someplace else.

"We stop people who drive from Gallipolis to Huntington to visit the bars, or give people rides home after they've been to the bars," Rood said. "They will go to Huntington and then chance it getting back to Gallipolis."

Jail time and fines

The penalties for DUI can be stiff: For a first offense, a person can be sentenced to three days in jail or to a three -day education program, a fine of $200 to 1,000 and license suspension of six months to three years. If the driver tested at a .10 percent or above on a blood alcohol concentration test, his or her license could be suspended for one year on that first offense.

The penalties increase with each arrest. A person convicted of a fourth or more offense could get a 60-day jail stay and a minimum $750 fine, as well as mandatory drug/alcohol treatment program and a minimum license suspension of three years.

Right now Ohio law considers a person to be intoxicated if their BAC is .10 or higher, but there is a move in the legislature to lower that level to .08.

"I think that will be passed soon," Roark said, noting that federal officials are using the carrot-and-the-stick approach to pressure states to make such a change. "There are a large amount of federal funds that could be lost if we don't."

Stiffer penalties

Roark said he would like to see more education in conjunction with stiffer penalties. He said currently it isn't uncommon for people to be sentenced to a year in jail for DUI, but have most of that sentence suspended.

He is also hopeful that the state will lower its BAC law from .10 to .08.

Roark said other states that have dropped their BAC law have shown improvements in their drunk driving statistics.

"The first year the BAC law was changed in California, that state had a 12 percent reduction in alcohol-related fatalities. Of the five states that have dropped their law from .10 to .08, four have seen a reduction in alcohol-related crashes," Roark said.

Another law that would stiffen penalties for multiple offense DUI's was introduced last week in the Ohio legislature.

Under the proposed law, a suspect who accumulates five DUI convictions, regardless of the time frame, would face a maximum prison sentence of five years for a sixth offense. In that case, according to the proposal, the prosecutor would be able to add a habitual drunken-driver specification to the indictment, which would allow a judge to impose an additional sentence of one to five years.

Under current state laws, a felony charge is in effect only when a suspect gets a fourth DUI conviction within a six-year period. The maximum penalty in that case, a fourth-degree felony, is a maximum of one year in prison.

Rood said the main thing is just getting the impaired driver off the street.

"I have pulled over DUI's in the middle of the afternoon," Rood said. "If they make it past me, then this puts others in danger."