{"id":128487,"date":"2024-05-15T04:00:34","date_gmt":"2024-05-15T04:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/madd.org\/?p=128487"},"modified":"2024-05-17T17:16:35","modified_gmt":"2024-05-17T17:16:35","slug":"guest-author-may-2024","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/madd.org\/guest-author-may-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Guest Author \u2013 May 2024"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"128487\" class=\"elementor elementor-128487\" data-elementor-post-type=\"post\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-947d5a9 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"947d5a9\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-801f274\" data-id=\"801f274\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-595842e elementor-widget elementor-widget-image\" data-id=\"595842e\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"image.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<figure class=\"wp-caption\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"603\" height=\"426\" src=\"https:\/\/madd.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/James-Tobin.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-image-128488\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/madd.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/James-Tobin.jpg 603w, https:\/\/madd.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/James-Tobin-300x212.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 603px) 100vw, 603px\" style=\"width:100%;height:70.65%;max-width:603px\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<figcaption class=\"widget-image-caption wp-caption-text\">James Tobin<\/figcaption>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/figure>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-3d5db8f elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"3d5db8f\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<h2 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">Celebrating Progress\u2026 and Staying in the Fight <br \/>\nJames Tobin, retired law enforcement  <br \/>                                                     Section Manager - Substance Abuse &amp; Mental Health Programming                <br \/>\nYavapai County Community Health Services, Prescott, AZ\n<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-1d35094 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"1d35094\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p>Hello traffic-safety partners!<\/p>\n<p>Consider the following U.S. impaired driving statistics:<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 A report from the National Institute of Alcohol and Alcoholism states \u201cAlcohol-related highway fatalities were at an all-time high in 1970, and there were an estimated 100,000 alcohol-attributable deaths in the United States\u201d (Modad et al. 2004; NIAAA 1997).<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 The Mothers Against Drunk Driving website indicates that prior to 1980 approximately 25,000 people were killed on American roadways each year.<\/p>\n<p>\u2022 The Centers for Disease Control (C.D.C.) reports that in 2020, 11,654 people were killed in motor vehicle crashes involving alcohol-impaired drivers (accounting for 30% of all traffic-related deaths in the United States).<\/p>\n<p>Given the increased numbers of cars and drivers (and miles of roadway) in the United States since the early 1970\u2019s, the statistics listed above represent a healthy and positive environmental change. Tremendous progress has been made, right?<\/p>\n<p>The answer is \u201cYes, but\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In 1997 I was in the police academy in northern Arizona. Toward the end of the academy, we had a block of training called \u201cD.U.I. week.\u201d This training provided the basic tools needed to investigate impaired driver cases on the streets and roadways we\u2019d soon be patrolling. Toward the end of the week, there was a guest speaker: Sharon Sikora, who\u2019d helped start M.A.D.D in Arizona. Sharon was a D.U.I. crash victim survivor, and she told us how she\u2018d been burned alive in her car as the result of another person\u2019s selfish decision to drive while impaired. She concluded her talk by telling us to use our training to get drunks off the road so that someone else didn\u2019t suffer as she had. It was a lightbulb moment for me. Sharon\u2019s talk helped me find a passion for my upcoming police career.<\/p>\n<p>In 2000, I attended a traffic safety conference in Phoenix. The Arizona Director of the Governor\u2019s Office of Highway Safety (G.O.H.S.) Alberto Gutier told us his goal was to eradicate impaired driving on Arizona roadways. He said he wanted to stigmatize drunk driving; the same way smoking had been stigmatized in our culture in the past 50 years. I appreciated Director Gutier\u2019s ambition, but truthfully, I thought he was shooting for the moon. \u201cIt will never happen,\u201d I thought to myself. In those days it was easy to find seriously impaired drivers with extremely high BAC\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p>Over the years, though, I noticed something: it became increasingly more difficult to find impaired drivers (even, or especially, on big drinking days like New Year\u2019s Eve, St. Patrick\u2019s Day, Cinco De mayo, etc.). The impaired drivers were still out there, to be sure, but the dedicated messaging of M.A.D.D. and other traffic safety groups&#8212;coupled with greater numbers of well-trained and resourced police officers&#8212;was working. The number of impaired driving fatalities on American roadways continued to decline every year, and we celebrated when alcohol impaired fatalities went below 10,000 for the first time ever in 2011. <a style=\"color: #b3282d;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.nhtsa.gov\">(www.nhtsa.gov)<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>To a large extent, impaired driving has been stigmatized in our culture. Many drivers&#8212;young drivers especially, in my experience&#8212; have gotten the message that impaired driving is not an option. They plan ahead, they use a designated driver, they take a cab or an Uber. Alcohol-impaired fatalities declined 50% between 1982 and 2018 (<a href=\"http:\/\/www.responsibility.org\" target=\"_blank\">www.responsibility.org<\/a>) . Unfortunately, the problem of impaired driving hasn\u2019t been eradicated. As the website Responsibility.org points out, \u201cHardcore drunk drivers continue to wreak havoc on our nation\u2019s roadways\u201d<\/p>\n<p>We should acknowledge the great progress that\u2019s been made since the early 1970\u2019s. At the same time, we should also be concerned about the up-tick in alcohol and (especially) drug-impaired-driver fatalities since 2011 (The 11,654 impaired driver deaths reported in 2020 represented a 14% increase from 2019).<\/p>\n<p>All of us&#8212;traffic safety advocates, parents, community health stakeholders, elected officials, criminal justice system partners, etc.- must re-dedicate ourselves to this effort. We need to remain vigilant, and we need to hold onto the valuable ground that\u2019s been gained.<\/p>\n<p>Now more than ever, we have to stay in the fight.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>James Tobin Celebrating Progress\u2026 and Staying in the Fight James Tobin, retired law enforcement Section Manager &#8211; Substance Abuse &amp; Mental Health Programming Yavapai County Community Health Services, Prescott, AZ&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/madd.org\/guest-author-may-2024\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Guest Author \u2013 May 2024<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[158],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-128487","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-guest-author","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.5 - 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