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Don’t drive while intoxicated

West Virginia’s law enforcement officers and Division of Motor Vehicles are noticing what should be a positive trend: The number of drunk-driving fatalities in the state is dropping. Approximately 26 percent of highway fatalities in the Mountain State involve alcohol, which means, “It’s still an issue, but it was quite a larger number in the past,” according to Bob Tipton, director of the West Virginia Governor’s Highway Safety Program.

However, there is no jumping for joy at those numbers because another statistic is cause for alarm. Drugged driving is increasing — going from 4 percent to 34 percent of DUI arrests. “Just this past weekend we had at least two incidents, two accident fatalities believed to be drug-related, with impaired drivers,” Tipton told a reporter recently.

It is a trend that has gone hand-in-hand with the opioid epidemic in our region, but opioids are not the only culprit. Even drivers who take perfectly legal prescription medications that alter their ability to think clearly or react quickly are a risk.

Law enforcement officers are better trained and, unfortunately, becoming more experienced at spotting and dealing with drivers impaired by drugs. So those who think they may be able to get away with it because there is no odor of booze on their breaths should think again.

Driving while drunk or impaired by drugs is never the right choice. But folks who are putting themselves behind the wheel in that state are probably past the point of making good choices. Planning for designated drivers or other alternatives to driving — before taking that first drink — could avoid not just financial, administrative or legal hassle. It could save a life.

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