Saturday was the commemoration of the 35th anniversary of the founding of Mothers Against Drunk Driving Hawaii. A community ceremony was held at MADD’s poignant Victim Memorial statue in Kakaako Waterfront Park. The president of MADD National was present, as were Lt. Gov. Josh Green and many other local leaders.

Looking back, MADD Hawaii, like MADD nationally, played a key role in cutting alcohol-related traffic fatalities in half in the 1980s and 1990s. Mysteriously, however, the trend has flattened since 2000. There are still around 10,000 such deaths annually nationwide, and a five-year average of 60, including drug-impaired fatalities, in Hawaii.

And drugs are playing an increasing role in this havoc. Last year Hawaii traffic fatalities involving drugs alone were over twice the number for alcohol alone and an additional number revealed the deadly combination of both drugs and alcohol.

In 2017, only four states were worse than Hawaii in percent of total traffic fatalities that were alcohol-related. In its most recent study, the Centers for Disease Control completed interviews with 467,334 U.S. adults regarding their impaired driving behavior. As measured by the number of self-reported alcohol-impaired driving episodes in a year, Hawaii was worst in the nation. In fact, Hawaii topped the charts by a wide margin.

What are some of the reasons?

1) Hawaii is the only state in the U.S. without probation for DUI, and probation is what makes offenders accountable for carrying out their sentences.

2) With no in-state laboratory, drug tests (toxicology) have to be carried out on the mainland, with significant delays, costs, and other complications.

3) A number of recent decisions by our state Supreme Court have favored DUI offenders and often hindered law enforcement.

4) Although the in-car breathalyzer (“ignition interlock”) prevents more than 12,000 attempts a year by Hawaii offenders to drive after drinking, it is only utilized by fewer than 25% of eligible offenders — those who wish to drive legally while their license is revoked for DUI. Most of those not installing an interlock device continue to drive illegally and Hawaii has weak penalties for driving after a person’s license has been revoked for DUI.

People seem to drink and drive “because they can.” Data shows this is especially true of males aged 18 to 35. They seem to ignore traditional educational messaging. They don’t seem concerned that they might cause injury, damage and tragedy. They only seem to fear getting caught. And our beleaguered police and prosecutors face daunting obstacles to securing conviction and punishment.

Recent needless disasters like January’s Kakaako intersection crash are constant reminders of our serious highway safety problems. These 100% preventable crashes just keep happening over and over. The anguish of victims is heartbreaking.

It’s time to get “MADD” all over again. Thoughtful Hawaii state legislators agree that a complete reexamination and overhaul of Hawaii’s DUI statutes is long overdue.

Reforms should include probation; increased consequences for not using ignition interlock; meaningful penalties for driving while license is revoked for DUI; the establishment of a Hawaii-based toxicology laboratory; and, a fresh look at the 0.08 blood alcohol legal threshold (which many states are considering lowering to 0.05).

MADD itself needs to continue its program of educating youth, young adults and those who come in contact with this age group about the facts relating to using drugs and driving. We are encouraged that our national office just announced it is developing a special campaign relating to drugs and driving after staff members visited Hawaii last October to attend our “Drugs and Driving” conference.

Next month MADD Hawaii will be honoring individual police and prosecutors around the state who have gone above and beyond the call of duty in protecting roadway users from those who still don’t “get it.” These men and women of law enforcement have been swimming upstream against a strong current of indifferent attitudes, changing habits, and reductions in their own ranks.

It really is “time to get MADD all over again.” On this occasion of our 35th anniversary, MADD Hawaii could use everyone’s support in solving Hawaii’s lethal impaired-driving problem.

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MADD HAWAII MILESTONES

For 35 years, MADD Hawaii has been advocating for laws, policies and education against drunken and drugged driving. Here are some highlights over the years:

1983: “Organizing committee” is formed to plan for starting chapters of Mothers Against Drunk Driving in Hawaii.

February 1984: MADD National founder, Candy Lightner, charters three chapters of MADD in Hawaii: Honolulu County, Maui County and Hawaii County.

1984: Court monitoring program is initiated and is active in District and Circuit Courts.

December 1984: First candlelight vigil to remember victims held at Holy Trinity Church in Niu Valley. Jon K. Raneses, 22, is killed that evening just a few miles down the road.

1984-86: MADD Hawaii wages campaign to raise Hawaii’s drinking age to 21; Legislature passes bill to raise drinking age.

1986: Legislature adopts measures to: Create protocol and guidelines for sobriety checkpoints; and create the offense of driving under the influence of drugs.

1986: Holiday awareness campaign, Project Red Ribbon, begins and develops into an annual program that becomes the national Tie One On for Safety campaign 10 years later.

1986: First annual MADD DASH Fun Run held in downtown Honolulu.

1986-87: Designated Driver Awareness program established with the support of local corporations.

1987: Victim Bill of Rights incorporated into Hawaii statutes.

1991: “Administrative Driver License Revocation” (ADLR) statute passes after 8-year campaign. New law is flawed and MADD Hawaii wages community to “Fix the Flaw in the Law.” A special session of the Legislature is called by Senate President Dickie Wong after he received 3,000 calls.

1993: Victim Impact Panels initiated as a pilot program in state Judiciary’s Driver Education DUI “Counterattack” course, and continued until 2004. Victim Impact Panels are currently conducted regularly for small groups of offenders. – often from other states.

1994: Governor’s Impaired Driving Task Force is established, works as part of task force to pass key measures: 0.08 BAC (blood alcohol concentration) becomes illegal per se level (Hawaii is 13th state to adopt this level); and habitual offender law (class C felony) for people with three prior convictions.

1997: Impaired Driving Task Force works to pass several key pieces of legislation: Zero tolerance for minor drivers under the age of 21; police given authority to test drivers for the presence of drugs; medical personnel in hospital emergency rooms required to report illegal BAC levels to police.

August 2002: Enforcing Underage Drinking Laws (Project Pau) program begins to reduce underage drinking through legislation, law enforcement, and public and youth activism.

September 2002: Street Smarts and Fake ID, national multimedia presentations to prevent underage drinking are presented to public and private schools statewide.

March 2003: MADD Hawaii Victims Memorial is unveiled and dedicated at Kakaako Waterfront Park.

March–April 2003: MADD Hawaii launches statewide underage drinking prevention media campaign.

December 2007: MADD and state Department of Transportation submit report on Interlock to Legislature on behalf of the working group, and in January 2008, 12 Ignition Interlock bills are introduced. In June 2008 Ignition Interlock bill is signed into law by Gov. Linda Lingle (Act 171) and a task force is authorized to work on expansion of Act 171 to provide for implementation of the interlock system in July 2010.

July 2010: MADD Hawaii sponsors first Walk Like MADD with the help of a Navy victim family, held at Kakaako Waterfront Park. In 2014 the event moved to Ala Moana Center.

January 2011: Hawaii’s Ignition Interlock program goes into effect three years after enabling legislation passed. One year later, over 1,200 interlock devices are installed statewide.

October 2018: MADD Hawaii sponsors a conference, Drugs and Driving — A Call to Action about the problem of drug-impaired driving among younger drivers.

For a full 35-item list, see www.madd.org/hawaii.

Arkie Koehl is MADD Hawaii’s public policy committee chairman. Carol McNamee is MADD Hawaii founder and board member.