The number of DUIs and alcohol-related deaths have plummeted since the 1980s in Colorado, but the downward trend has flattened out in recent years.
More than 32,000 people were arrested across the state in 2005 for driving under the influence, according to the Colorado Department of Transportation. In 2004 the number of DUI arrests was 31,279; the 2003 total was 31,632.
While those numbers are an improvement from 20 years ago, when laws were more lax and awareness was low, law enforcement leaders and civic groups such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving say much more needs to be done.
Several recent high-profile DUI cases, including two Denver children and their mother who were run over and killed by a suspected drunken driver last month, are re-energizing efforts to ratchet down the number of DUI offenders and the danger they present.
“It’s going to be a challenge to figure out how to get better results,” said Sgt. Jeff Goodwin of the Colorado State Patrol.
Several strategies are being considered by Colorado lawmakers and police, including investment in new technology, tougher penalties for first offenders as well as a felony charge for a third DUI offense.
“We can pass all the laws we want, but at some point the general public has got to say this is not OK,” said Gaylen Matzen, a victim-assistance coordinator with MADD. “We are not OK with the loss of life, and we are not OK with these injuries.”
New Mexico is the only state to require mandatory ignition lock systems for first-time DUI offenders. Drivers convicted of a DUI must blow into a tube that analyzes for alcohol. If alcohol is detected, the vehicle won’t start.
In Colorado, the use of an ignition lock system is imposed on multiple offenders at the discretion of a judge.
“We are pushing for more on the technology side,” said Jonathan Adkins, a spokesman for the Governors Highway Safety Association, a nonprofit group based in Washington, D.C. “We’d like to see interlocks after the first offense in every state.”
A variety of penalties
First-time DUI violations in Colorado, as in most states, are misdemeanors. Penalties range from five days to one year in jail, and license revocation.
Colorado, however, differs from other states when multiple charges are involved in a DUI offense.
In Colorado, a DUI charge is always a misdemeanor, though accompanying charges when cases involve property damage, injury or death are felonies. Drivers already with three “major” violations, such as DUI, can be hit with a “habitual traffic offender” charge, which is a felony. A third DUI violation in Arizona, and other states, is a felony.
Mike Pellow, chief deputy district attorney in Denver, said it’s time to toughen the penalty for multiple DUI offenders.
“Absolutely, we need to have a per se felony DUI,” Pellow said. “On a third time drinking and driving offense, it should be a felony.”
State Sen. Andy McElhany, R-Colorado Springs, said he would support legislation to introduce felony DUIs in Colorado.
“The real problems come from the heavy drinkers and the problem drunks,” said McElhany, who sponsored the bill that lowered the blood-alcohol content threshold for DUI in Colorado to 0.08 percent two years ago. “Finally, there is nothing left to do but lock them up.”
But most local jails are already overcrowded. Judges in Colorado are given discretion in how to impose a sentence because jails and courtrooms are already overcrowded, said Mark Randall, a deputy district attorney in Jefferson County.
Home detention and monitoring convicted drunken drivers with ankle bracelets is viewed as a practical and effective solution.
“The legislature has given judges very wide latitude on what to do do with DUIs,” Randall said. “Everyone is trying to come up with creative solutions to try to get people rehabilitated, but sometimes people are not cooperative. Then it comes down to protecting society.”
Families devastated
For some, however, tough jail sentences come too late.
Judy Brandolino was driving toward her Coal Creek Canyon home when she saw the police cars and television news trucks. As she drove by the scene of a fatal hit-and-run, Brandolino saw a mangled bicycle. She knew it belonged to her son.
Tony Brandolino, 36, was killed by a drunken driver on June 29, 2005.
Judy and her husband, Jerry, want tougher punitive measures for convicted drunken drivers, even for first-time offenders, as a way to cut down on recidivism and alcohol-related fatalities.
“They don’t know the devastation they do to the families” of victims who are killed or injured, Judy Brandolino said.
Beginning in 1980, the percentage of alcohol-related deaths in Colorado was above 50 percent for five consecutive years. Since then, the percentage dropped until it reached 30.4 percent in 1997.
In recent years, the percentage of traffic fatalities involving alcohol has been climbing.
Brandolino was among 244 people who died in Colorado in 2005 in alcohol-related traffic accidents, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Last month, Robert C. Gwizdalski, 41, of Black Hawk was sentenced to 11 years in prison for Brandolino’s death. Gwizdalski was a repeat drinking and driving offender.
Just before Brandolino’s death, he and his father, Jerry, were converting an old school bus into a road-side sandwich shop in Coal Creek Canyon. Jerry Brandolino put off the restoration for awhile, but then he used the shop as a way to work through his grief.
Brandolino’s Sandwich Bus Stop, specializing in Italian foods and Polish sausage, opened in May. Tony was planning to work part time at the business with his father.
“I kept saying to myself, ‘Tony, we are going to finish this. We are going to get it done.”‘ Jerry Brandolino recalled. “Tony would have wanted to see it open.”
Staff writer Kieran Nicholson can be reached at 303-954-1822 or knicholson@denverpost.com.
