Emley Laiche’s mother always saw her daughter becoming an enthusiastic elementary school teacher, loved by her students.
“She never met a stranger,” her mother Lisa Jensen remembers.
But Emley’s life ended Father’s Day 1992, on her way to Baton Rouge, in a head-on collision with a drunk driver.
She never graduated high school. She never graduated college. She never reached her 13th birthday.
Her elementary school students never would know what a wonderful teacher she could have been.
Emley was one of many victims of drunk drivers in the state. In fact, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released a report in December ranking Louisiana third in the nation for deaths resulting from drunk driving.
Within the state, East Baton Rouge Parish ranks fourth in alcohol-related fatal crashes for parishes with more than 100,000 licensed drivers, according to the Louisiana Highway Safety Coalition.
Although there were no alcohol-related drunk driving deaths on the University’s campus, LSU still faces alcohol-related problems. The University is perceived as being one of the top “party schools” in the nation.
LSU ranked fourth in the nation for the 2002 “Top 25 Party Schools,” according to Playboy magazine.
The number of on-campus DWI arrests decreased from 44 in 2001 to 28 in 2002, said LSUPD Captain Mark Shaw.
Arizona State University, ranked number one on Playboy’s list, reported 71 DWI arrests in 2001 and 94 in 2002.
Georgetown University was unranked by Playboy, and reported zero DWI arrests in 2001 and one in 2002. However, Darryl K. Harrison,
associate director of the Department of Public Safety at Georgetown, attributed the low numbers to having only one city street running through the campus.
West Virginia State University, ranked number five according to Playboy, reported 21 DWI arrests in 2001 and nine in 2002. Public Safety Director Bob Roberts said when the school implemented a new late night bus service this year, the number of DWI arrests decreased.
LSU revised its own night bus system during fall 2001, when it implemented new routes, more buses and longer hours, said Gary Graham, director of Parking, Traffic and Transportation.
The number of people riding the night bus increased from 878 in 2001 to 1,507 in 2002, he said. Neither Graham nor Shaw attributed the decrease in DWI arrests solely to the night bus. However, both said it influenced and helped the problem.
Shaw said there are many other factors that affected the decrease, including a law enforcement crackdown on underage drinking in bars. But he said the night bus system was “well-received.”
“It would certainly remove an intoxicated driver from behind the wheel,” he said.
Cathy Childers, state head of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, speculated LSUPD was not able to catch as many drunk drivers because the budget for overtime DWI detection was redistributed to the homeland security budget.
The federal grant allowing MADD to conduct victim impact panels, where victims of drunk drivers speak in front of incarcerated DWI assailants, “is in serious financial constraints” because of homeland security, she said.
Jensen, Emley’s mother and a MADD employee, spoke to people arrested for DWIs at victim impact panels. After such panels, she received letters from inmates describing how her speeches changed their lives.
“I too am a father and … I was overwhelmed with guilt … the worst part was that I was so grandiose in the thought that I could be a designated driver because I had a tolerance level higher than everybody else,” said an inmate whose name was not released for privacy reasons. “I don’t ever want to be that person who is responsible for the loss of a life because of my inability to think.”
Kristy Miller, communications coordinator for LSU Campus-Community Coalition for Change, said by making efforts to work with such agencies as MADD, “we hope to continually put the issue of drunk driving in the front of people’s minds.”
Out of Louisiana’s 954 traffic fatalities, 445, or 47 percent, were alcohol-related in 2001, according to the NHTSA.
Louisiana’s numbers are above the national average by six percent, according to the NHTSA report.
Childers said the numbers are disappointing but not unusual. She blames the drunk driving problem on complacency with Louisiana residents and “weaknesses and loopholes in our laws.”
Stricter bills recently received support from the Property and Casualty Insurance Commission to outlaw open alcohol containers for passengers, to suspend their licenses for a year if caught and to prohibit district attorneys from using “pre-trial diversion,” a tactic keeping DWI offenses from going on a person’s record, according to the Associated Press.
Childers is taking action by appealing to legislators for stiffer penalties for drunk drivers. Jensen agrees.
“It’s time lawmakers consider it murder … the penalty should be the same,” Jensen said. “The victims are left with the life sentence … my punishment is life without Emley.”