Sonoma Index-Tribune Editorial: Toasting a decline in drinking and driving

This editorial is from the Sonoma Index-Tribune:

We take almost any excuse to say cheers ‘round these parts. Got a new job? A toast! Going through a divorce? Salud to your sadness. There are very few occasions that aren’t improved with a bottle of Sonoma wine.

During the coronavirus pandemic, we may have pushed that a bit too much. Binge drinking became more common, and too many people came face to face with alcohol’s brutality.

“A new study from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism finds that alcohol-related deaths in 2020 were so high that, for 16- to 64-year-olds, they exceeded the number of deaths from COVID-19. Previously, the average annual increase was a little more than 2%; between 2019 and 2020, it skyrocketed to more than 25%,” the Washington Post shared in an April editorial.

But here in Wine Country, where drinking feels as commonplace as breathing, we seem to have turned the other way. Arrests in the Sonoma Valley for driving under the influence peaked in 2021, with a height of 117 arrests, only to plummet a year later, and the valley is on pace to have just 60 this year (based on the 40 arrests made in the first eight months of 2022). Law enforcement has no real explanation for the phenomenon, except to encourage everyone to keep it up — whatever it is.

Local DUI enforcement is the same as years prior, police told the Sonoma Index-Tribune, so seemingly it is behavior that has propelled this positive change. Perhaps we’ve gotten better at booking designated drivers, or maybe Ubers and Lyfts are more prevalent, or we’re just drinking at home more. Whatever it is, the net outcome is fewer intoxicated drivers on the road — a bonus that benefits everyone.

Every 45 minutes an American is killed by a drunken driver, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. We’re certainly bucking the trend seen around much of Sonoma County. Just look to Petaluma, which saw seven DUI arrests between 5:30 p.m. Friday and 2:30 a.m. Saturday, the first night of the Labor Day holiday weekend, more than Sonoma Valley sees most months lately. Petaluma upped its enforcement by taking part in the National Highway Traffic Safety Association Impaired Driving Labor Day Campaign, which certainly contributed to its high number of arrests.

“Since the campaign’s start Aug. 17, Petaluma police have made 19 DUI arrests, an increase of five arrests from the same period last year,” the Petaluma Argus-Courier reported.

We may not know exactly what is keeping us safer on the roads, but we do know what it takes to keep that going — and that includes all of us making good decisions when we decide to imbibe.

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