Snockered driving

Whether it is the cold weather, more people moving in, increased law enforcement, or all three, arrests for DUI are booming in Flathead County. The old record for a weekend going back several years in the time of the Highway Patrol's traveling "Goon Squad" was 14. The last few weekends produced numbers in the twenties, 22 from last Friday night to Monday morning, 25 the weekend before.

In the early days of the "Goon Squad," I wrote a column, which was widely reproduced. Among those reprinting the column was CAADAC, California Association of Alcoholism and Drug Abuse Counselors, which is a large organization with thousands of members. Following is the way it appeared in their winter 1985 publication of "FREEDOM."

(Editor's Note: The following column is reprinted, with permission. From the Kalispell, Montana Weekly News. The author is George Ostrom, former owner of the award winning newspaper, who is listed on the masthead as "Editor-Janitor Emeritus." Ostrom is as well known in the Northwest for his hard-hitting commentaries as for his tongue-in-cheek humor columns.)

There was a startling development last week in the present war against drunk drivers. Down in the rip roaring town of Livingston, Montana, the Bar Owners Association talked the city council into rejecting a state grant which would have funded more police help in cracking down on inebriated vehicle operators. The bar owners' argument was straightforward and honest as can be. They said that the current city, state and national campaigns against drunk driving were already raising absolute hell with the booze business, and further pressure might be economically disastrous.

Most of us have never before given scrious consideration to the importance of the drunk driving industry on the nation's overall economy, but now our eyes may have been opened.

Drunken drivers are not just important to bar owners. They generate billions of dollars in business each year, for all of us.

Let's think about where they create the most activity. Maybe there are a couple of billion in the auto replacement, repair and salvage business. Can you imagine trying to run all those body shops on just crashes caused by the cold-sober crowd?

Then there is the biggest business in the world, the insurance business. True! Only a few full-time drunk drivers can or will carry liability themselves, but look at the tremendous volume of underwriting sales, claims adjustment and litigation made possible by their crashes into other people's cars and property. You stop this, and you're talkin' about throwing tens of thousands of innocent workers out of a job.

Some would estimate that without drunken drivers running around, we'd have to lay off at least 25 percent of the highway patrol, police cruiser officers and county Mounties. Those guys have to eat too, ya know.

Among the other folks who routinely benefit from the plastered pedal pusher's business are the hospitals and courts, all those professionals who operate them… the doctors and lawyers, as well as support personnel.

There are in excess of 25,000 people killed annually in the U.S. in vehicle accidents involving one or more drivers "under the influence." If the average funeral costs $2,500, that means 100 million dollars in mortuary business.

It is good to have a farsighted city council right here in Montana with the rare combination of wisdom and courage necessary to expose sneaky threats to the nation's economic well-being.

Sleep well, you folks down in Livingston… but… it wouldn't hurt to be extra careful out there… on the streets.

G. George Ostrom is the news director of KOFI radio and a Hungry Horse News columnist.