Avoiding the drunken drive

A frequent conversation that occurs any night of the week at Fairfield usually involves: ‘Hey man, I’ll pre-game in Jogues and then drive down to the suites.’ It doesn’t matter where you live or where you need to go: dorms, village, townhouses or the beach all fit in that sentence.

It is a lie to say that the number of DUIs that Fairfield students receive are proportionate to the number of drunken drivers, and it’s also a lie that those caught driving under the influence were first time offenders. DUIs that are off campus have been a concern, especially at the beach.

What about the DUIs on campus?

We all know that at this time of the year that walk to the townhouses seems longer and, unless you’ve done a few extra shots, a lot colder. Hopping behind the wheel makes a lot of sense, and taking a ride up to the townhouses seems like a great idea; it’s safe to say almost everyone manages to get away with it.

It seems a bit crazy to find a designated driver for a ride up to the townhouses. The same argument can be made for the beach: Who wants to wait 45 minutes for a cab? If you can get a cab, it will cost $10 each way. So when you can avoid the wait and the price, getting behind the wheel and taking the 10-minute drive to the beach sounds much more appealing. It seems that the ease of driving post pre-game makes sense.

When it comes to drinking and driving, there are two kinds of people: People that do it or people who don’t. If they don’t, they are responsible about it: They find a designated driver, suck it up and walk, or pay a cab. This will often lead to an extra expense, an argument about whose turn it is to drive, or an embarrassing three-mile walk.

For those who are going to drive under the influence, they are going to do it until they get caught. But when it comes down to it, what can be done to dissuade them and keep the roads on and off campus safer?

Having a DUI check point on Loyola Drive may be a bit extreme. Of course, if students were being caught, this might ease the parking situation next year by possibly opening up more parking spaces for rising sophomores.

So what do we do if we want to avoid creating such a’ DUI check point? Besides sending offenders to court, what other options are there?

Suggestions: Possibly having the Stag Bus or mini-bus run on campus at night, bring safe rides back, and, yes, once again, have a bus to the beach.

Sadly, hitching a ride from the Domino’s Pizza guy mid-delivery in the townhouses is not a good enough option to prevent drunken driving. The University of course would have to find a reason besides providing intoxicated students transportation to their party destination on weekends. Student safety can always be provided as the official reason behind it.

If the frequency of drunken driving on campus continues, it is only a matter of time before someone stumbles in front of a driver post pre-game driving the wrong way in the townhouses. Are we going to wait for that to happen before we do anything to prevent it?’