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Dragging Out the “Drugged Drivers” – DUI Enforcement is Also Capturing Drug Users

Dec 15, 2016 12:24 pm

We all know about the dangers of “drunk driving.”

But what about “drugged driving?”

When someone gets behind the wheel after using a narcotic, they may be even more impaired than an alcohol user – making them a toxic peril to other drivers. And in many cases, they’re being mixed… with terrifying results.

Drugged Driving isn’t a new phenomenon. But what’s changed is the role of aggressive DUI enforcement in helping to snare more of these offenders.

In a recent LinkedIn article by Jim Wigmore – a forensic toxicologist and author – it’s clear that drinking drivers are more than twice as likely to have drugs in their systems than non-drinking drivers. This includes cocaine, THC and other prescription medications used in combination with alcohol.

The research indicates that roughly 300,000 to 400,000 drug users are being removed from the road by employing effective DUI enforcement strategies like sobriety checkpoints.

You can read the complete article here.

CheckBAC Featured on Canadian Morning Show, Salut, Bonjour!

Alcohol Abuse, Media

By Matt Garrepy

Jul 21, 2016 9:59 am

Breaking News: ‪#‎CheckBAC‬ was featured this morning on national Canadian morning news with Stephane Maurais. The show’s hosts discussed how the CheckBAC Business breathalyzer and application monitoring system could have prevented 2 pilots (who were recently arrested for suspicion of alcohol use) from trying to fly while intoxicated.

The program – Salut, Bonjour! – is a nationally syndicated network show like TODAY or Good Morning America in the U.S. It is the flagship morning program on Canada’s TVA Network, the number one television network in Québec. Salut, Bonjour! continues to pull the largest audience share in the market seven days a week, with almost 24% of the viewing audience. To learn more about Salut, Bonjour!, click here.

For more information on CheckBAC’s Air Crew Safety Compliance Solutions, click here.

Flying the Unfriendly Skies: Pilots Arrested for Suspicion of Being Under the Influence

Alcohol Abuse

By Matt Garrepy

Jul 19, 2016 3:10 pm

Flying, without a doubt, is the safest way to travel.

It’s true. Just consider the statistics:

The odds of a plane crash are one in every 1.2 million flights. That’s a stark contrast to driving, which is significantly more dangerous across the board. According to The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, there are more than 5 million accidents on our roads each year. The National Transportation Safety Board, on the other hand, reported only 20 accidents with planes over the same time period.

But let’s get down to the real nitty-gritty: The National Safety Council calculated that the odds of dying in a motor vehicle to be 1 in 98 over a person’s entire lifetime. For air travel, the odds were 1 in 7,178.

Not even close.

Yes, planes do occasionally crash (there have been roughly 1,000 between 1950 and 2010). From pilot error to mechanical failure to weather incidents, the unthinkable can still happen. However, given the number of daily flights and the magnitude of airline passengers moving around the world, there’s a better chance that you’ll lose your luggage or get food poisoning than take your last ride.

But there is one thing that can increase the odds of a life-threatening outcome: pilot intoxication.

Imagine, if you will: you’re booked on a transatlantic flight from Glasgow to Toronto. You’ve taken your seat, stowed your carry-on luggage and made sure your tray table is in its upright position. The plane is taxiing down the runway, and you think, “is the pilot sober?”

This might be the first time you’ve considered this question – but the reality of pilot insobriety is more common than you think. And it just happened… again.

According to a recent story from the CBC, both the captain and co-pilot (that’s right, both!) were arrested for suspicion of alcohol use before manning a flight from Scotland to Ontario. The cabin crew alerted airline management before the 250 passengers boarded the plane, and a potential crisis was averted.

There’s no room for mistakes at 37,000 feet – and pilots can’t afford to have their judgement impaired in any way. To have both pilots intoxicated means that no one was available as a backup, putting every passenger at double the risk. Per FAA regulations, pilots aren’t allowed to consume any alcohol eight hours before a flight or have a blood alcohol level (BAC) higher than .04 percent. While airlines have been increasingly proactive in testing the BAC of their personnel – from mechanics to pilots – it’s clear that these systems continue to be circumvented.

According to a study by the PMC of Lexis-Nexis newspapers articles, the number of alcohol violations by airline pilots in the U.S. have significantly increased since 2001, and continues to occur with a disturbing frequency. From 2010 to 2015, 64 pilots were cited for violating the FAA alcohol and drug guidelines – and in 2015 alone, over 1,500 airline personnel (including 38 pilots) tested positive for illegal narcotics.

It’s unbelievable.

In a FoxNews interview, Peter Bartos, a retired military pilot, made this observation:

“It is mind-boggling that on average, one U.S. pilot a month is caught trying to fly a passenger aircraft while over the legal limit for flying, which at 0.04 percent, is more restrictive than for driving a car in many states, especially given that they know they are subject to screening. It also means that others aren’t caught, since it is not a mandatory test for all pilots on every flight.”

Pilots are responsible for the greatest asset of all: life. This responsibility can weigh heavily on these skilled and highly-trained individuals, and alcohol may be a common remedy for pressure and stress-related disorders. But there’s no excuse for being “cocked” in the cockpit – especially when so much is on the line.

While the U.S continues to have one of the most stringent and regulated systems for airline pilot safety, alcohol continues to plague our pilots – putting lives at stake, and making our skies a little less safe. We must do better, and recent advances in breathalyzer technology and monitoring practices can help lead the way.

The Blue Collar Blues: Alcohol Abuse Highest Among Construction and Mining Industries

Alcohol Abuse

By Matt Garrepy

Jul 6, 2016 2:09 pm

“If you build it, they will drink…”

That sure seems to be the case in the construction and mining industries – where employees are abusing alcohol at record levels.

But it’s not just in these specific building and heavy industries. In fact, businesses across the board are measuring alcohol abuse with greater clarity than ever before, and the numbers are staggering. The reality is that almost every business is seeing a greater degree of risk.

We all know that substance abuse is negatively impacting U.S. businesses across the board. From lost productivity and absenteeism to workplace accidents and injuries, companies are at a greater risk than ever before. According to a 2015 SAMHSA study by Donna M. Bush and Rachel N. Lipari, U.S. companies lose billions of dollars each year because of alcohol and drug abuse – and those numbers vary based on the specific industry.

In the same study, the authors concluded that “an annual average of 8.7 percent of full-time workers aged 18-64 used alcohol heavily in the past month,” with the most concentrated use in the mining, construction and food services industries. While not all of the jobs in these fields are hazardous, many require the skilled operation of tools and machinery – and in some cases, heavy equipment with a high-level of risk to life and limb.

The bottom line: these are not the places where mistakes can happen.

There are many reasons why these “blue collar” workers might turn to alcohol. High turnover rates, low pay, limited opportunities for growth, clinical depression… the list of contributing factors goes on. While companies can invest in smart, proactive policies to combat substance abuse disorders, they are still at risk on any given day from an alcohol-related accident or injury – resulting in a work stoppage, lawsuit or other business-crippling event.

Want to see what the stats are for your specific industry? Read the entire study here.

The $44 Billion Dollar Truth: Alcohol Abuse Is Costing Everyone

Alcohol Abuse

By Matt Garrepy

Jun 1, 2016 3:21 pm

We all know the damaging effects of alcohol abuse. Many of us have witnessed it first-hand with a friend, family member, partner or spouse – and the effects are dramatic. It has destroyed families. It has crippled businesses and brought pain to entire communities. And the negative consequences are numerous, including divorce, domestic abuse, workplace injuries, lost productivity, criminal penalties and debilitating lawsuits. The list goes on.

One of the most evident impacts of alcohol abuse are traffic accidents. According to the CDC, nearly 10,000 people were killed in alcohol-related driving crashes in 2014 – representing almost one third of all traffic-related deaths in the United States. That’s 28 people per day… or one death every 53 minutes.¹

The numbers are staggering.

But there’s another number that you simply won’t be able to comprehend:

$44 billion.²

That’s the estimated annual cost of alcohol-related crashes from a study conducted by the DOT in 2010.

$44 billion. Let that sink in.

Just to give you some perspective on how big that number is, the 2016 annual budget for the Department of Transportation (for the entire US) is about $94 billion. The budget for the Department of Education is close to $70 billion. And the budget for the Department of Homeland Security is a mere $46 billion… just two billion shy of the DOT’s estimate of damages from alcohol-related crashes.

It’s impossible to put a price on the life of a loved one – but the costs associated with damages, rescue/recovery, lost productivity, legal processes and more are highly measurable. When you begin to consider the peripheral impact, $44 billion might be a conservative estimate.

When you begin to factor all of the related costs – from first responders to emergency services to delayed traffic – you begin to see that everyone is potentially impacted when just a single person drives under the influence.

To fight this corrosive trend, legislative and judicial response to curb alcohol abuse has become increasingly vigilant. And it has to be – because driving under the influence has reached epidemic proportions. In 2014 alone, nearly 1.1 million drivers were arrested for DUI of alcohol or narcotics.³ Traffic stops and checkpoints have consistently helped to reduce accidents and fatalities by roughly 9%, but offenders are often plagued by recidivism.

The use of installed interlock breathalyzers in offenders’ vehicles has been a key part of the conviction resolution – and has contributed to a nearly 70% decrease in re-arrests.⁴ But these devices are both expensive and easy to overcome; offenders can simply use another vehicle or have someone else blow into the interlock apparatus. This lack of control and visibility is further exacerbating the economic impact of alcohol abuse.

When offenders can easily skirt the alcohol compliance requirement of their court-mandated sentence, the potential for recidivism increases – and so do the odds of another traffic accident. As more and more young people age into the drinking population and onto our busy highways and roads, that $44 billion could skyrocket – along with the number of lives lost to alcohol abuse.

So how do we fight back?

With CheckBAC™ – a patent-pending solution that finally bridges the gap between testing and accountability. CheckBAC delivers the promise of “Shared Safety” to communities and workforces through the most accessible and widely adopted platform ever created: their mobile phone.

Now courts, businesses and organizations can easily and effectively monitor and manage the sobriety of hundreds or even thousands of individuals from a single point. It combines industry-accurate Bluetooth^® technology, a simple, easy-to-use smartphone app and an easy-to-use management platform.

CheckBAC gives you the power to test and monitor individuals – anywhere, anytime – and instantly see their results. And because CheckBAC doesn’t rely on an expensive, car-based Interlock device, it goes where your offender goes and costs up to 80% less than other systems.

To see a demo of the CheckBAC solution, email Rodney@CheckBACBusiness.com

Sources:

1 Department of Transportation (US), National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Traffic Safety Facts 2014 data: alcohol-impaired driving. Washington, DC: NHTSA; 2015 [cited 2016 Feb 5]. Available at URL: http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/812231.pdf

2 lincoe LJ, Miller TR, Zaloshnja E, Lawrence BA. The economic and societal impact of motor vehicle crashes, 2010. (Revised). Washington, DC: NHTSA; 2015. [cited 2016 Feb 5]. Available at URL: http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/pubs/812013.pdf

3 Department of Justice (US), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Crime in the United States 2014: Uniform Crime Reports. Washington (DC): FBI; 2015 [cited 2016 Feb 5]. Available at URL https://www.fbi.gov/about-us/cjis/ucr/crime-in-the-u.s/2014/crime-in-the-u.s.-2014/tables/table-29