WALTERBORO, S.C. - Colleton County Alcohol Enforcement Team Coordinator Michael Strauss has a mission -- to get all impaired drivers off the road. And, he’s doing something about it.

Strauss is a frequent visitor to schools in Colleton County, where he instructs the young people in the dangers of driving while impaired by either alcohol and/or drugs.

A retired Marine, he has been serving as the AET coordinator for the past year. Part of his job entails providing equipment and law enforcement officer education for impaired driving detection.

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From May 27-30, Strauss coordinated a training course in DUI Detection and Standard Field Sobriety Testing in Walterboro for members of the Law Enforcement Network’s 14th, 9th and 2nd judicial circuits. Eight participants successfully completed the training and are now nationally certified to conduct the tests in order to help determine a driver’s impairment status. The officers were from the Colleton County Sheriff’s Department, the Allendale Police Department, the Hampton County Sheriff’s Department, the Ehrhardt Police Department and the Folly Beach Department of Public Safety.

The course was taught by Jacob Bowland and Wayne Harris, both certified instructors at the S.C. Criminal Justice Academy with special presentations by Certified Traffic Safety Officer Dale Smith and Drug Recognition Expert David Kopenhaver (Bluffton Police Department).

The students learned there are three phases of DUI Detection and SFST. The first stage calls for the officer to determine if there is sufficient probable cause to pull the vehicle over, while the second stage requires the officer to come face-to-face with the driver in order to conduct the evaluation. The final stage involves the decision whether or not to take the driver to jail.

During the second stage, the driver is evaluated by the officer using the nationally recognized three standard field sobriety tests. Since driving requires an individual to process and react to information while completing a physical task, the tests are designed to emulate division of attention required by a driver. The first test is called the horizontal gaze nystagmus test. Nystagmus refers to the involuntary jerking eye movements often caused by high levels of alcohol or drugs. The second test is the walk and turn test and involves having the suspect walk a straight line under certain, specific conditions. The third test is the one leg stand test. It requires that the suspect balance on one leg while counting aloud. Once the testing is complete, the officer then makes the decision as to whether to arrest the individual. If the driver is arrested, he/she is transported to jail, where additional tests are performed to confirm the extent of impairment.

"I enjoy teaching this course, and I am passionate about removing impaired drivers from our roads. You never know the state of the other driver, and it only takes a moment for an impaired driver to kill or seriously injure an innocent person," Bowland said.

Instructor Wayne Harris cautioned, "Remember, everybody makes decisions – some good and some not so good. But, you are responsible for the decisions you make."

Harris told the officers, "Your job as law enforcement officers is to enforce those South Carolina Law Codes involving impaired driving. The SFST are nationally recognized as indicators of impairment. As you officers conduct traffic stops, remember the DUI indication cues and perform the SFST as necessary."

"If someone made the choice to drive while impaired, it is your job to get him/her off the road before he/she wrecks, causes a wreck or causes injury or death to another," he said.

Bowland said one out of every seven drivers leaving a night club/bar is DUI. Also, for every one DUI caught, three others are stopped but allowed to continue because the officer did not have the knowledge to recognize the indication cues and/or conduct the SFST, they noted.

In South Carolina, 0.08 grams/milliliter of blood is considered legally intoxicated and too impaired to drive. However, many people are too impaired to drive with much lower levels, the instructors said, and S.C. law indicates that the impairment to drive is the consideration for arrest rather than the Blood Alcohol Level of 0.08g/ml.

Some common signs of alcohol influence show that for an average person, a BAC of 0.03 g/ml will demonstrate slowed reactions and a BAC of 0.05 g/ml will include increased risk taking, it was noted.

This level of alcohol is dangerous because the driver with this BAC may not judge distances accurately and may react too slowly to changing traffic patterns, Harris said.

All eight students received the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration certification and will be actively participating in traffic stops by recognizing impairment cues and conducting the necessary Standard Field and Sobriety Tests.

The course was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Transportation, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, the Office of the Governor-Traffic Safety Officers and the Traffic Safety unit of the South Carolina Criminal Justice Academy.

T&D Correspondent Sherryl M. Peters can be reached by e-mail at boykinbaby@surrealestate.com.

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