Train law enforcers about drugged drivers
Suffolk County Deputy Sheriff Robert Howard checks for impaired drivers along the Long Island Expressway in Medford (Jan. 2, 2010). Credit: Newsday/Thomas A. Ferrara
In the past 30 years, thanks to a concerted and relentless effort, drunken driving fatalities in the United States declined more than 50 percent. But at the same time, evidence is mounting that drugged driving is increasing dramatically.
On Long Island, drugged driving arrests are up 40 percent in the last decade, and in New York City the increase is 340 percent. In Suffolk County on Monday two drivers were indicted in separate incidents on charges that their drugged driving killed passengers in other cars. The problem needs to be combated and controlled.
A bill sponsored by Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) aims to do that by equipping and training police. The bill would provide $140 million to train cops to spot drugged drivers, and fund government research into portable drug-detection technology.
The training makes sense. Also useful would be the kind of push staged by Mothers Against Drunk Driving and Students Against Destructive Decisions.
But developing testing technology to use at the scene is complicated and could take years. Current tests often require blood, urine, hair and saliva samples. If equipment can be developed at a reasonable cost, history tells us it's likely the private sector that can do it.
We should focus this public money on training cops to identify high drivers, fighting a public relations battle against drugged driving, and creating penalties stiff enough to deter it.
