The Daily Egyptian is published by the students of SIU at Carbondale. Except during vacations and exam weeks,
The Daily Egyptian is published Monday through Friday during the fall and
spring semesters and TWThF during the summer semester."
Drunk drivers in Jackson County beware. The county's law enforcement agencies pulled over drunken drivers at a record clip in 2002, and officers are showing no signs of slowing that torrid pace in 2003.
Officers made 804 DUI arrests in 2002 within Jackson County. Through Wednesday, police had arrested 757 possible DUI cases in 2003. With a month to go in 2003, officers have plenty of time to eclipse last year's record number of DUI arrests.
The number of DUI arrests in the county is a marked change from previous years. The number of drunk driving arrests in Jackson County jumped from 578 cases in 2001 to 804 cases in 2002. In 2000, there were 505 DUI arrests within the county.
Since Aug. 15, the Friday before the SIUC fall semester began, police have made 198 DUI arrests within the county.
The bulk of these arrests during the semester have been made in Carbondale as 122 cases of drunken driving have been reported by police as of Wednesday.
Grand Avenue has been the most frequent place for DUI arrests within the city since the fall semester began. Of the 122 drunk driving arrests made in Carbondale, 26 of them have been made on Grand Avenue or at one of its intersections.
The intersection of Grand Avenue and Wall Street has been the site of the most DUI arrests at any Carbondale intersection this semester with six drunk driving cases being reported.
One of the people largely responsible for keeping Carbondale's streets free of impaired drivers is Carbondale Police Officer Doug Wilson. With 15 DUI arrests, he has had more drunken driving arrests than any other Carbondale Police officer during the fall semester.
Wilson said he is not surprised by the jump in DUI arrests within the county and credits the higher number of arrests to more aggressive patrolling by his fellow Carbondale Police officers.
"I think the guys we have working the streets right now are very pro-active," Wilson said. "They're constantly looking for different types of crime, but they also look for traffic offenses that will maybe result in DUI arrests. We do anything we can to make the streets a little safer in Carbondale."
Police have also been doing their part to keep motorists safe from drunk driving in Murphysboro. Since Aug. 15, officers have made 51 DUI arrests in the city.
The man responsible for more than half of those arrests is Murphysboro Police Officer Gib Bastien. Through Wednesday, Bastien had made 26 DUI arrests since Aug. 15, which tops every officer in the county during that period.
Bastien said he credits the rise in DUI arrests to four factors: more public awareness, better police equipment, better police training and a more aggressive patrol.
"I think we have now in our lifetime seen DUI crime escalate right up there with burglary," Bastien said. "As much as I patrol for anti-burglary of people's homes, I also patrol for their protection on the street. We are patrolling now and maybe looking for that particular thing on a daily basis more than we did in years past. We're looking for that crime."
Bastien said he feels a personal obligation to the drivers of Murphysboro to investigate any traffic violation that may be the result of impaired driving.
"DUI enforcement saves lives," Bastien said. "It's not necessarily the life of a stranger. It could be your life or your family's life.
"The unfortunate thing and what I hate about it is that it's never the drunk who gets killed. You take an opportunity; you take a chance of killing several people. You put one man on the highway running 70 miles an hour in a two-ton projectile with a blood alcohol level over the limit. How many people are you potentially putting at risk? Way too many."
