On a Sunday night in March, after he had downed four beers and a bottle of tequila, 36-year-old César Ramírez-Olivas of Santa Fe was driving his Dodge Caravan south of Taos.

On a long bend in N.M. 68 known locally as the Horseshoe, his van crossed the center line and slammed head-on into a motorcycle. The motorcycle's driver, 48-year-old David T. Romero of Ranchos de Taos, died at the scene. Romero's passenger, 41-year-old Ramona Miera, died after being airlifted to Santa Fe. Ramírez-Olivas survived.

For Emilio Chavez, a prosecutor in the Taos District Attorney's office, what makes the collision epitomize Northern New Mexico's drunken-driving problem is that everyone involved had been drinking, and all three had DWI arrest records.

"The two (drivers), either one of them could have an accident and were drunk," he said. "People repeatedly have gotten their warnings."

While debate rages on about how to stop the carnage — whether through more enforcement and stiffer penalties or achieving a cultural shift through education and intervention — a seemingly endless series of headline-grabbing tragedies keep fueling the arguments.

Almost an entire family wiped out by a wrong-way driver on Interstate 25. The lives of four Santa Fe teens cut short in a late-night head-on. A pedestrian mowed down while crossing a downtown street. All are cases of what police say were alcohol-related incidents.

More than four hours after the crash near Taos, Ramírez-Olivas — a Mexican national who had lived in the Santa Fe area for the past 12 years and worked in construction — had a blood-alcohol content that measured more than triple the legal limit. He had been arrested for drunken driving in 1998 but never prosecuted. Last month, he was sentenced to seven-and-a-half years in prison and will be deported upon release.

Motorcyclist Romero's blood alcohol content at the time he died was 0.17 — more than double the limit — while passenger Miera's was 0.25, the Office of the Medical Investigator said.

Romero had been charged with DWI seven times since 1984 and had pleaded guilty six times. Miera, about two years before the fatal crash, had pleaded guilty to her second DWI.

City DWI arrest numbers down

Since at least 2003, about half of the fatal accidents in Santa Fe County have been alcohol-related, according to statistics compiled by the DWI Resource Center in Albuquerque. "There's a problem," director Linda Atkinson said flatly.

On the other hand, the total number of arrests for DWI in the county has actually dropped in recent years. Is it a result of fewer drunks on the road, or a drop-off in efforts to catch them? Observers disagree.

The total number of DWI arrests in the county has dropped by 355 since 2003, according to the statistics. Most of that decline is attributed to the Santa Fe Police Department, which in 2003 arrested 680 people for DWI, yet in 2008 made 399 drunken-driving arrests. That's well off the peak of 1,186 arrests in 1995.

Steven Flint, who worked at the state Traffic Safety Bureau for nine years and now volunteers on the DWI Resource Center Board, said last year's 399 arrests by the city "is a fairly low count" for a department with three full-time DWI officers. Atkinson called the total "pretty sad."

The Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office, meanwhile, appears to be holding its own. According to the center's statistics, in 2008, for the first time ever, sheriff's deputies arrested more people for DWI than city officers: 443. In 2003, deputies had busted 369 suspected drunken drivers.

Rachel O'Connor, New Mexico's DWI Czar, said there's a reason for the discrepancy between city and county numbers. The state has concentrated on beefing up DWI enforcement through county sheriff's offices, because statistics have shown that 70 percent of DWI-related fatalities are in rural areas, she said. That has led to a perception among some police departments that drunken driving is a rural issue, she said.

Also, many departments in the last few years have had trouble recruiting and retaining enough officers to form DWI patrols, and different police chiefs tend to emphasize different priorities. O'Connor is concerned about the low number of arrests in the city of Santa Fe in 2008 and has urged Mayor David Coss and Police Chief Aric Wheeler to re-emphasize DWI enforcement.

The Santa Fe Police Department employs three full-time DWI officers who are funded by the city, said Lt. Dale Lettenberger, who supervises the traffic unit. However, one of those officers was out on medical leave for 18 months during 2007 and 2008. Another was promoted during that time period and the department took its time replacing that person, he said. That meant the department was down to one DWI officer for much of 2008.

Wheeler said DWI enforcement is a priority for his department, and that the DWI unit has been at full-strength for most of 2009. The third DWI officer was added under former Police Chief Eric Johnson, whom Wheeler replaced in May. The department wants to add a fourth DWI officer under a plan that calls for adding an overall total of 45 officers to the force in the next three years.

"I don't think (a lack of concentration on drunken drivers) is the case with us," Wheeler said.

The Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office employs six DWI/traffic enforcement officers. All of them are paid for with state or federal funds, said Sheriff Greg Solano.

Watershed moment

Until the early 1990s, drunken driving was not a law-enforcement priority in New Mexico. The Santa Fe County Sheriff's Office arrested only 13 people for DWI in 1986, for example, though city officers arrested 625 suspects that year, according to DWI Resource Center statistics.

In Rio Arriba County — one of six counties, including Santa Fe County, with the biggest DWI issues — the problem was worse. There, sheriff's deputies arrested one person for DWI in 1991, while Española police officers arrested 238.

In fact, the situation in Rio Arriba County didn't really improve until the state began giving the sheriff's office more money five years ago. The total number of DWI arrests went from 40 in 2004 to 134 in 2005, according to O'Connor and Atkinson.

Back in the '80s and early '90s, Atkinson said, it wasn't politically palatable for sheriffs — who are elected, as opposed to police chiefs, who are appointed — to arrest people for DWI. "It was something that wasn't smiled on by constituents at the time," she said.

Then came Gordon House.

House admitted to drinking seven beers on Christmas Eve 1992 before driving the wrong way on Interstate 40 in Albuquerque and crashing into and killing Melanie Cravens and her three young daughters. It was a watershed moment for DWI in New Mexico.

"After the Gordon House crash was the first time New Mexico really paid attention to DWI," O'Connor said. In the wake of the accident, the state Legislature strengthened DWI laws and more money was made available for police agencies to combat the problem.

"Particularly (in 1993), police agencies became more focused on (DWI)," Flint said. "They put more resources toward it."

In 1995, law-enforcement agencies in Santa Fe County arrested 2,183 people on DWI charges — up from 1,467 in 1992, according to DWI Resource Center statistics. That total included 1,186 arrests by city police, 474 by county deputies, 329 by state police and 194 by tribal police agencies in Santa Fe County.

The numbers remained high in 1996 and 1997, but dropped the next year and remained level until 2006, when the number dropped again, according to center statistics.

The numbers continued to decline in the last two full years, when 1,258 and 1,279 people were arrested, respectively, for DWI in Santa Fe County. For 2008, the most recent year, the number of arrests breaks down to 443 arrested by county deputies, 399 by city police, 280 by state police and 157 by tribal agencies in the county, according to center statistics.

The right tools

Besides manpower issues and possibly the changing priorities of city police administrations, other factors seem to have contributed to the drop in DWI arrests.

Back in the mid to late 1990s, police were on the front lines of DWI enforcement and the number of arrests shot up, Flint said. Over the years, he said, the arrest numbers have dropped off because anti-DWI funds have been spent on other approaches — like treatment, court monitoring and advertising campaigns.

"The most urgent thing to do is increasing enforcement of DWI laws," Flint said. "(That means) more police effort. Enforcement is the single most effective tool to combat DWI." He doesn't think the state needs to add money to anti-DWI efforts. Rather, the money needs to be re-allocated to emphasize police enforcement.

Atkinson agreed that police enforcement is the number one factor in making a difference in the behavior of drunken drivers. "There's very solid research that says if you change the perception of the risk of getting caught, then you can change behavior," she said.

Furthermore, DWI Resource Center analysis of statistics indicates that every 100 proactive DWI arrests — that is, people arrested after being pulled over by police and not after an accident — translates to more than a dozen fewer DWI-related crashes during the next 12 to 18 months, Atkinson said.

She also agreed with Flint that too much money is being diverted to television and radio ads, and thinks the entire pool of anti-DWI funding coming to city, county and state agencies could use a thorough audit. The multi-pronged approach to combating DWI helps, "But you really have to make sure law enforcement is out there and visible. Watching a TV commercial cannot change perception alone."

O'Connor, who was appointed by Gov. Bill Richardson to focus on the state's DWI problem, also sees enforcement as the tool most likely to change behavior. "What we do know is that 50 percent of those arrested (for DWI) don't do it again," she said. "Increasing arrests is an excellent deterrent."

O'Connor said enough money is available to put cops on the streets. "We have clearly told police agencies we would support any effort to increase (DWI) arrests," she said. "Our focus is on law enforcement and public awareness to support law enforcement." She added that it wouldn't be difficult for a Santa Fe-area police agency to interest her office in a proposal designed to increase DWI arrests.

Facing realities

While law-enforcement officials here agree that enforcement is an important tool in fighting DWI, they also like the multi-pronged strategy.

"The reality is, we have to approach it from multiple angles," Wheeler said. "A lot of drunk drivers go their entire lives without being arrested."

Education is a big key, he said, particularly among young people. "It's such a critical time now with the death of these four teens," he said, referring to the accident that took place in the early hours of June 28. "That generation in Santa Fe is directly impacted by that. The question is, how can we get the message across so it doesn't happen again?"

Solano said he thinks it's of paramount importance to emphasize alcohol treatment, particularly residential treatment, for those caught driving drunk. He said he recently tried to find in-house treatment for his son, who has had two DWIs, and couldn't find any. "Drunks won't stop until they get treatment," he said.

Even Santa Fe County Sheriff's Deputy Brian Nissen, a trained DWI-enforcement officer, agreed that the multifaceted approach is key.

"You need to solve the problem after the arrest," Nissen said during his regular patrol shift one night last week. "Or a week later I'm going to see them out on the street again. Enforcement only goes so far."

Becky Beardsley, director of the Santa Fe County DWI Program — which operates on a more than $1.1 million budget from the state — said that it funds enforcement, prevention, treatment, compliance monitoring, screening, and alternate sentencing, as well as coordinating placement and evaluation of people cited for DWI. In her opinion, the multi-pronged strategy is a must. "Drop any one of these (components), and it all stumbles.

Change in culture?

Though it's harder to quantify, the drop-off in arrests could mean there are fewer drunken drivers out there than there were in the 1980s and '90s. If so, perhaps a culture that was long ambivalent about the problem is finally starting to come around.

Fatal crashes involving alcohol are down statewide from 219 in 2004 to 143 in 2008. And while the 2008 numbers were significantly lower than previous years — though Atkinson called it an anomaly and assigned it to high gasoline prices — O'Connor hopes 2009's DWI fatalities are even lower than last year's.

In Santa Fe County, alcohol-involved crashes were down from 377 in 2004 to 233 in 2008, according to statistics from O'Connor's office. Also, DWI fatalities in the county were down from 13 in 2005 to five in 2008. However, nine of the 14 fatal crashes in the county through June of this year were alcohol-related, according to statistics provided by Flint. "Two thousand nine's not looking so good," he said.

While Flint and Atkinson both think there are just as many drunks on the road today as there were in the '80s and '90s because of population growth, Atkinson believes the culture has changed to the point where DWI is much less acceptable now than in previous decades. "Thinking of the circles I move in, it's become a lot less acceptable than back in the '80s," she said. "We're getting smarter to recognize alcohol as a drug, and it needs to be handled as such."

Flint isn't so sure. "It just doesn't look like there's been a qualitative change (in behavior)," he said. "People are still drinking and driving and dying."

Sheriff Solano, Chief Wheeler and even O'Connor disagreed with Flint. "There are definitely fewer drunks on the road now than 20 years ago," O'Connor said, citing the state's declining DWI-related fatality rate. Wheeler and Solano believe that drinking patterns in the state and Santa Fe area have begun to change. That view backs up preliminary research by O'Connor's office, which indicates people are drinking more at home, she said.

Solano said deputies tell him that drunken drivers are getting harder and harder to find. Wheeler said graveyard-shift officers tell him there are far fewer people in the bars at closing time now than in previous years. Checkpoints are ensnaring fewer drunken drivers, Wheeler said, and officers are finding many more designated drivers hauling drunken friends. But Nissen said he still catches between one and three drunken-driving suspects a shift.

Despite possible change in the culture, no one is ready to call the problem solved. "It's an ever-present problem, and we're making strides," Beardsley said. "But we have a ways to go."

Contact Jason Auslander at 986-3076 or :jauslander@sfnewmexican.com.



SOME HIGH PROFILE DWI CASES

* Scott Owens, 27, of Eldorado was allegedly in the wrong lane of Old Las Vegas Highway on June 28 before he ran into a car carrying five Santa Fe teenagers. Four of the teens — three 16-year-olds and a 15-year-old — died in the accident. Owens, whose blood alcohol content was .16 nearly four hours after the crash, had a previous Santa Fe drunken-driving conviction from 2001.

* Carlos Fierro, 36, of Santa Fe had a blood alcohol content of .21 when he struck and killed William Tenorio, 46, on Guadalupe Street the day before Thanksgiving last year. He was cited for drunken driving in Albuquerque in April 1997.

* Dana Papst, 44, of Tesuque, had a blood alcohol content of .32 when he drove the wrong way on Interstate 25 north of Santa Fe in November 2006 and crashed into a minivan carrying six members of a Las Vegas, N.M. family. Six people, including Papst, died. Papst had been arrested for drunken driving five times in Colorado and was convicted of DWI in New Mexico in 1989, 1990 and 1991.

Editor's note: This story was originally posted to Santafenewmexican.com on Sept. 5 and published in The New Mexican's print edition on Sept. 6. It is being highlighted again on Sept. 8 to give those who might have missed it another chance to read this report.

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