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The legal limit
Valley cops keep a keen eye out in summer when DUI arrest rates climb.

By Carolyn Smith

On a Saturday night in July, Teton County Sheriff's Deputy Chad Sachse is working the DUI patrol in Jackson Hole.

Sachse stops three people for burned-out headlights or tail lights; his goal, as part of a federally funded program, is to go after all who have moving violations in the hopes of finding an impaired driver. This night everybody appears to behaving. But finally, he assists a new deputy who has pulled over a man for driving without turning on his headlights.

The man has just pulled onto Broadway from the Wendy's parking lot and looks confused and upset. He apologizes profusely. Deputies try to administer sobriety tests.

"This is my first time," the man says in a plea for leniency.

He gets nowhere. Red eyed and smelling of alcohol, he blows .185 on a portable breath test. Then it's cuffs and a quick trip to the lockup.

"I don't have any doubt he's sorry," Sachse says, returning to his patrol car. "But the legal limit is .08."

It is another busy summer night for Jackson Hole law enforcement officers charged with keeping impaired drivers off the streets. DUI arrests in Jackson Hole increase significantly during the summer. Last week 24 people were booked into Teton County Jail for DUI, an average of three a day.

In 2001, nearly one-third of the year's 332 DUI arrests occurred in the 99 days between Memorial Day and Labor Day, according to statistics from the Teton County Jail. In 2002, Jackson Hole is right on track. About half of the 188 DUI arrests this year in Teton County have occurred since Memorial Day.

"It's simple," said Teton County Sheriff Bob Zimmer. "There are more people on the roads and more drunk drivers."

Three out of five impaired

But arrests in no way indicate how many people are driving impaired. Sachse estimates that between 12:30 and 3:30 a.m., about three out of five are impaired.

Even as he works with his colleague to arrest the tipsy Wendy's patron, a truck zooms by and the driver honks three times. The lawmen broadcast a description. Less than two miles away Wyoming Highway Patrol troopers arrest the driver for DUI.

Jackson Police Officer Mark Smith, patrolling the streets on a Saturday night in June, agrees with Sachse's estimate.

"We're passing people who are under the influence of alcohol," Smith says as his patrol car makes its second lap of Jackson. "We've passed a half-dozen people who are legally drunk.

"I arrest people who are in their 40s or 50s," he said. "They've been driving drunk their whole lives."

To help increase DUI arrests during the busy summer months, the police and sheriff's departments reallocate shifts and offer overtime as part of a federally funded DUI patrol program. Sachse tries to sign up for the "DUI car" ­ the federally funded patrol ­ at least once a week.

But cops are faced with a challenge when it comes to pulling people over for drinking and driving. "I have to have probable cause," Sachse said. "I've arrested people who are passed out at stoplights or signs and who are driving 5 mph down Broadway. At a .30 [BAC] they've got both hands on the wheel and they're hugging the center line."

But people who are barely over the legal limit of .08 BAC are harder to identify, Smith says. "It's hard to pick them out."

At 11:30 p.m., Smith starts looking for anything from speeding to a broken tail light to make a stop. "I'll be making every stop I can for every violation I can," he says. The hope is that widespread contact will turn up those who are driving impaired.

Law officers got a new tool July 1, when the standard for impaired driving changed from .10 BAC to .08. So far, the law has not significantly increased arrests. There were 42 between July 1 and Aug. 8, 2001, two more than that in the same period this year.

But arrests are determined largely by the number of officers on patrol, police investigator Larry Compton said. Police do not discriminate between levels of impairment, he said.

"Whether it's a .08 or above a .10, we're getting as many people as we see," Compton said. "Most of them are still above a .10 BAC."

The stakes in drinking and driving are highest perhaps because it is a crime that involves all segments of society, Teton County and Prosecuting Attorney Steve Weichman said. "It is a mistake that can be made by anyone who drinks," Weichman said. "Almost everybody drinks."

For that reason, Weichman would like to see less severe penalties for first offenders who agree to stringent probation terms.

In exchange for deferred adjudication, which would take a charge off an offender's criminal record after a two-year probation, many people "would absolutely stop drinking."

"The public wins," Weichman said.

The consequences of drinking and driving are severe.

If a person is convicted of DUI, he or she must pay a $630 fine and remain on probation for one year. If pulled over for any moving violation, the person must submit to a breath test and will be arrested if cops can detect any alcohol. Fines for repeat offenders can be up to $750, and the offender can be sentenced to up to six months in jail.

But the most sobering consequences of drinking and driving can be seen at the Teton County DUI impact panel. It is held four times a year, and attendance is required as part of the sentences for DUI offenders.

Victims and those convicted of impaired driving talked at one such panel in July. More than 45 people attended, all of whom were convicted of DUI.

On a four-person panel in July, victims and perpetrators of impaired driving told stories of how drinking and driving affected their lives.

One panelist, Lee Killian, spoke because her husband, Jeff Pool, was killed on Easter Sunday 2001, when an impaired driver plowed into him as he was bicycling on the shoulder of U.S. Highway 89/191 in Grand Teton National Park. Clinton Hammers, the man who pleaded guilty to hit-and-run and aggravated vehicular homicide, registered a .089 BAC when he was booked into jail. The legal limit at that time was .10 BAC, and prosecutors were prepared to argue drinking was a factor in Pool's death, even though Hammers did not register .10.

Killian said the fact that Hammers' may not have been reeling isn't the point. "He probaby wasn't what most people consider 'wasted,'" she said. But, "he was impaired enough to hit the only obstacle in front of him."

Choked up at times, Killian told the audience that because of Hammers' decision to drive when he was impaired, her life with the man she loved was taken away. She urged the attendees to think twice before they drove impaired again.

"Driving tipsy could result in a tragedy, but it can be avoided," Killian said. "It's just about not drinking and driving."

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