DUI: The Facts

Wichita - The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates about 3 in every 10 Americans will be involved in an alcohol related crash at some time in their lives.

In 2004 Nationwide there were 16,664 alcohol-related fatality accidents or 39% of total traffic fatalities for the year. In Kansas there were 461 fatalities in 2004 and 148 were alcohol related or 37% of total fatalities. In Wichita there were 24 fatality accidents and 12 of those were alcohol-related for a total of 50%. As you can see, our community is higher than the state and national averages. Also the statistics reported here only constitute fatality ccidents. There are hundreds of thousands of accidents nationally in which people are injured in alcohol-related accidents. The average is about one person injured in an alcohol-related accident every 2 minutes.

On October 11, 1997 Officer Summer Langford, a two year veteran of the department, had finished her tour of duty as a second shift patrol officer for the Patrol West Bureau. She told her fiancé, a third shift officer good night then left the station to go home. As she drove through an intersection less than a mile from her home she was struck broadside by another car that was traveling at a high rate of speed and ran the red light slamming Officer Langford's car into a sign post killing her. Her fellow officers responded to the scene, but there was nothing they could do.

The driver of the car that hit her, a college student, had a blood alcohol content (BAC) of .086%. Having received only minor injuries he was treated and later arrested. On March 13, 1998 he was convicted of involuntary manslaughter while operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of drugs or alcohol and is serving a 43 month prison sentence.

This story plays out many times each day subjecting families and friends to not only the loss of a loved one, but the knowledge their loss was a result of the irresponsible actions of another person. It's time to stop these senseless tragedies.