Published: October 18, 2007 10:57 am      

Drunk drivers plague deadly highway

Be careful when driving on it.

“Highway 69 is deadly,” Oklahoma Highway Patrol Capt. Jeff Sewell said. “In our six-county area, the number one most deadly spot is the stretch of highway from McAlester to Kiowa.

“And the third deadliest spot is from the McAlester city limits sign to 10 miles north of McAlester.”

Sewell also said that Highway 270 West is a prime spot for locating drunk drivers. In fact, during one of his recent eight-hour shifts, the captain said he worked six drunken driver calls on that road alone.

Troopers are seeing drug- or alcohol-impaired people driving on nearly every shift and they want it to stop. Sewell said he worked one drunk driving case where the people were so “wiped out they couldn’t remember who was driving and they could barely stand up.”

In the past two months, officers have worked 53 car crashes and “about 50 percent of those were D.U.I.s,” Sewell said. “We’re already had 14 fatalities this year, and that’s just too many. We’ve got to do something to stop people from driving drunk or drugged.”

Most of those accidents occured on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights. “Friday and Sunday are our biggest nights,” Sewell said, adding that on Friday a lot of people are out partying while Sunday’s traffic is mainly travelers.

OHP has a three-phased plan to reduce the number of accidents. “Education is first,” Sewell said. “Hopefully this article will get people to thinking about how they shouldn’t drive while drunk or drugged.”

To determine if a person is driving while drugged, troopers can check blood pressure, look at a person’s pupils and “Have them stick out their tongue,” Sewell said. “If they’ve been smoking marijuana their taste buds will be raised and a lot of times their tongue will have a greenish tinge to it. We also watch hand-eye coordination when they pull out their drivers license. A person who isn’t impaired will pull it out one way, while a person who is under the influence of drugs or alcohol will pull it out a different way.”

The next phase in the accident-reduction plan is enforcement. “We are really beefing up our patrol,” he said. “People are going to be seeing a lot more of us, day and night.”

Also, more sections of roads have been marked for aircraft enforcement of speed limit laws. “Clocking by aircraft is extremely fair,” Sewell said. “It’s a time and distance equation, and the pilots are very well trained.”

The final phase of the plan is engineering. “Next spring, the area south of town where the traffic bottlenecks is going to get shoulders on both sides and a turning lane,” Sewell said. “Right now it’s the most dangerous place we have. There are a lot of accidents and fatalities there.”

There are four major causes of accidents. “First is going too fast for conditions — both weather conditions and road conditions. Second is driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Third is failure to yield and fourth is driving left of center.

“In my opinion, 90 percent of all crashes are caused by impatience.

“If people would just slow down when they’re driving, it would be safer for everybody.”

He also cautioned motorists to remember to slow down and change lanes, if they can, when they see an emergency vehicle. Also, “Seat belts save lives,” Sewell said. “Wear your seatbelt, don’t drive impatient, don’t drive drunk or drugged, and you’ll arrive alive. And so will the other people on the road.”

Contact Susan Brittingham at 421-2029 or sbrittingham@mcalesternews.com.