Pubdate: Mon, 09 Jun 2014
Source: Seattle Times (WA)
Copyright: 2014 The Seattle Times Company
Contact:  http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/409
Author: Mike Lindblom
Page: A1
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/testing.htm (Drug Testing)

DRIVERS CAN BRAKE FOR $60 SURVEY

Voluntary Blood, Breath Tests Aim to Gauge How Many Are Impaired

Government-hired survey teams will soon ask hundreds of Washington 
state motorists to answer questions and provide samples of breath, 
saliva and blood - all to give safety and police agencies a clearer 
sense of how many people drive impaired.

The roadside surveys are voluntary, and participants will be paid up 
to $60, under the federally funded project this summer.

National officials are collaborating with the Washington Traffic 
Safety Commission, which is hurrying to gather data before retail 
marijuana gains a foothold. That way, officials have a baseline from 
which to measure any safety effects of legalization, said commission 
spokeswoman Jonna VanDyk.

The roadside surveys began Friday and will continue over the weekend 
in Spokane and Yakima counties, followed by Kitsap and Whatcom 
counties later this month, and probably King and Snohomish counties, she said.

The study contractors plan to survey 150 drivers in five locations 
per county, for a total 4,500 participants.

Crews will not block or slow traffic, officials say. Drivers at a 
stoplight would encounter civilians wearing orange vests, with signs 
saying "Paid Voluntary Survey," then be asked if they wish to participate.

Other National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) studies 
have caused controversy elsewhere - including a lawsuit in 
Pennsylvania - where drivers said they felt compelled by police to 
stop and participate. The NHTSA program in Washington state will be 
run by the same contractors, Pacific Institute for Research and 
Evaluation, but has been designed with extra safeguards, such as 
keeping police off the front line.

Any biological samples will be destroyed when the findings are 
published, the state says. Names and license numbers won't be 
recorded, and therefore the samples won't be archived or crosschecked 
by government agencies, VanDyk said.

The state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union was consulted 
and says the program respects Washington state's constitution and culture.

"In other parts of the country, they used law-enforcement officers 
either as an actual roadblock, or waving people over, which would 
have raised our hackles," said Doug Klunder, privacy counsel for the 
ACLU in Seattle.

State officials have likened the scene to a carwash where fundraisers 
beckon people to pull over, Klunder said.

Last fall, police in Fort Worth, Texas apologized and removed 
themselves from a NHTSA roadside study after people said a police 
presence made them feel compelled to participate, a news report there said.

General traffic roadblocks were found unconstitutional in Washington 
state in a 1986 Supreme Court case, City of Seattle v. Mesiani, on 
grounds they violate Article I, Section 7, which says: "No person 
shall be disturbed in his private affairs, or his home invaded, 
without authority of law."

NHTSA conducted roadside surveys in various states in 1973, 1986, 
1996 and 2007, and is covering the cost for this month's Washington study.

It will be conducted by the Pacific Institute for Research and 
Evaluation, which VanDyk said has done 30 studies in other states.

Preliminary findings are expected this fall, with a follow-up survey 
in early 2015 to gauge the impact of marijuana sales, said program 
manager Shelly Baldwin.

"It's really hard to predict how this data will be used downstream," 
VanDyk said. The findings might help local police decide how much 
time to spend on DUI patrol, for instance, she said.

"As a state, we've committed ourselves to reducing fatal collisions," she said.

Given experience in California, she's confident the surveys will 
include an accurate cross-section of drivers, even people who've been 
drinking, because they are enticed by the $60 stipend for the 
20-minute survey. She said a survey there found 1 percent of drivers 
who participated were legally drunk, and 14 percent had some drug in 
their system, most commonly marijuana.

Questioners will carry detectors that pick up alcohol in the air and 
will alert the team if someone has roughly 0.05% blood alcohol 
content. Those would activate even before somebody blows into a 
breath-testing device, has their mouth swabbed or gives a blood 
sample. Klunder said the detectors that sense alcohol in the air 
cause some concern, but one could argue that merely agreeing to take 
the survey is a form of consent.

"That is probably the most coming-to-the-edge part of that, in my 
mind," Klunder said. "But still it's limited, and how they use it is limited."

The state threshold for driving under the influence is 0.08%, but 
research has found that reaction times decline before that level. If 
somebody blows between 0.05 and 0.08, the team would urge the driver 
to give the keys to a sober person, or accept a cab or motel room. 
Failing that, a police officer would explain the same options, said 
VanDyk. The police officer serves a second role, to protect the 
survey teams, which will sometimes work at night or in tough 
neighborhoods, she said.

The survey is meant to check for some 75 substances, including 
prescription and over-the-counter drugs.

Marijuana's effects on driving are considered more difficult to 
predict than alcohol. "Traces of marijuana can be detected in blood 
samples several weeks after chronic users stop ingestion," an NHTSA 
report acknowledges.

Alison Holcomb, author of Washington's legal pot law and an ACLU 
lawyer, said collision studies are needed, and not just roadside 
surveys, to get a clear picture of how recreational marijuana affects 
or doesn't affect traffic safety. Generally speaking, alcohol can 
lead to more aggression, while marijuana impairment leads to slower 
speeds and reactions, she said.

Surveys in other states have found good news - the proportion of 
drivers over 0.08 has gradually dropped from 7.5 percent in 1973 to 
2.2 percent in 2007, NHTSA reported.

Washington state has been striving to reduce road deaths through its 
"Target Zero" program, and is making steady progress. Traffic 
fatalities here have declined from 825 in 1990 to 444 in 2012, 
according to federal tables.

Still, an average 232 people a year die in the state because of 
impaired driving.
- ---
MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom