State Increases Efforts to Stop Drunk Driving in Work Zones

In the past couple of months, we have seen far too many incidents of people being arrested after being involved in an accident in a work zone in the Greater Boston area and throughout the Massachusetts.  While even a single drunk driving accident is one too many, we have seen around half a dozen drunk driving accidents in Boston and Revere, and state officials are trying to do whatever they can to stop this. We have already seen increased safety patrols by Revere Police, Chelsea Police, Boston Police and the Massachusetts State Police (MSP).

Now, according to a recent news article from the Boston Globe, the state has just launched a new campaign to make it safer for highway workers and curb this recent blight of drunk driving incidents in the Commonwealth. The recent effort is said to be a “two-pronged” campaign.  The campaign will focus on educating the public about the dangers of drunk driving and increasing drunk driving patrols in work zones.  Both of these prongs are designed to save lives and keep workers and others on our streets and sidewalks safe from drunk drivers.

Public education about drunk driving brings up some interesting issues.  On the one hand, it would be easy to dismiss this idea by saying that everyone already knows drunk driving is dangerous, but people decide to do it anyway.  There is clearly some truth to this, but the reality of the situation is that we must find a way to get potential drunk drivers to understand the true consequences of their actions before a serious Boston drunk driving crash occurs.

As we have seen from various anti drunk driving efforts, organizers and officials tend to target people’s already existing fears of the consequences of drunk driving and strengthen those fears to get people to stop drunk driving.  If the commercials we see are in fact a true indication of what fears the average potential drunk driver may have, it is that they are far more afraid of being arrested and losing their driver’s license than they are about being in a catastrophic accident where someone is severely injured or killed.

We know this because of the many ads and slogans that tell us if you “drive hammered, you get nailed” or “sober or slammer” or the DUI ad with a person blowing into an alcohol breath test that says “you just blew $10,000.”  One the other hand, there are very few ads that talk about the consequences of drunk driving in terms of serious fatal accidents.  One of the few ads that comes to mind is the campaign that tells us that buzzed driving is drunk driving and shows a driver with a friend in the hospital.

As for the law enforcement prong of the new campaign, state police are saying that while the traffic cones at work zones should be enough to get people to drive safely and avoid accidents, they clearly aren’t getting the job done, so increased police patrols are being implemented to catch drunk drivers before they have a chance to get into a serious or fatal accident.

If you or someone you love has been injured a Boston drunk driving accident, call for a free and confidential appointment at (617) 777-7777.

Additional Resources:

State launches campaign to bolster safety for highway workers, August 9, 2016, By Miguel Otarola, Boston Globe

More Blog Entries:

Report: Boston Named as Having Worst Drivers in US – Many Drunk Driving Accidents, July 21, 2016, Boston Drunk Driving Accident Lawyer Blog