The anti-drunk driving campaign is drawing a crowd at the Roundhouse. The anti-weed campaign, not so much.

Show us what has left the back of your eyelids burning. Send pictures of visual trespass and peculiarities to copyeditor [at] sfreporter.com, subject “eyedropper.”

Three days in the pokey for a first offense, plus a $2,500 fine: That’s Gov. Bill Richardson’s proposal, a response to the public’s renewed focus on drunk driving, a problem that just hasn’t seemed to get better.

The press release from Richardson’s office says the tougher penalties are “designed to deter first time drunk drivers.” (Read the full release after the cut.)

Judges tend to dislike mandatory minimum sentences. But public sentiment—however hypocritical it may be—might support a law-and-order approach like this. It’ll be interesting to see where this proposal goes.

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A Santa Fe County Sheriff’s report from last night ends with that line, suggesting authorities are finally getting serious about their long-planned impound program.

A deputy arrested Jaime Dominguez-Gonzales, 36, on his third DWI. The report says Dominguez-Gonzales had open containers in the car and was sharing with an 18-year-old woman. Read the full report after the cut.

Now: Can you see what’s different in these two headlines about the recent horrific crash?

Teen Driver Had Pot in Blood (Journal North)

Fatal DWI: Sheriff says teen wasn’t impaired (Santa Fe New Mexican)

The Journal headline implies that 16-year-old Avree Koffman (daughter of SFR employee Dan Koffman, and the only teen to survive) was stoned at the time of the crash. The New Mex headline contains the real news from the state toxicology report. (If the driver of the other car, Scott Owens, now charged with vehicular homicide, had traces of mind-altering substances in his blood, but “wasn’t impaired,” that would be much bigger news.)

This is why copy editors matter.

The impressions left by headlines are important, because most people don’t read articles all the way through.

Finally, a story out of Virginia reminds that it’s always possible to add insult to injury.
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Today’s New York Times has a story about how the feds suppressed findings from in-depth research on “distracted driving”—especially driving while using a cell phone, even with a hands-free headset.

“We’re looking at a problem that could be as bad as drunk driving, and the government has covered it up,” said Clarence Ditlow, director of the Center for Auto Safety. …

The highway safety researchers estimated that cellphone use by drivers caused around 955 fatalities and 240,000 accidents over all in 2002.

That year in New Mexico, officials counted 49,613 crashes; 449 people were killed. “Contributing factors” in all those crashes included alcohol in 3.9 percent of those crashes—compared to 10.3 percent for “driver inattention.”

Of course, cell phones have only become more common since then.

Other research, the Times reports, “shows that motorists talking on a phone are four times as likely to crash as other drivers, and are as likely to cause an accident as someone with a .08 blood alcohol content.”

Why bring this up now, with so much attention still focused on the recent, tragic drunk driving deaths?

Because the debate so far has focused on new ways to punish drunk drivers. Is that really the goal? Or is the goal to save lives? If the latter is more important, then New Mexicans should look for practical ways to make the roads safer, from drunks and cell phone yakkers alike.

After the July 8 meeting to discuss the future of the memorial set up in Cathedral Park, friends and family reconvened on the park Friday, July 10, to begin moving pieces of remembrance from the park’s monument to a new location next to the gates of the park’s northeast side.

The memorial honors teenagers Rose Simmons, Julian Martinez, Kate Klein and Alyssa Trouw. The four youths were killed June 28 in a car crash. Scott Owens, the driver of the car that hit the teens, has been charged with four counts of vehicular homicide and had a blood alcohol content twice the legal limit, according to police.

The new location for the memorial is where Rose’s father, John Simmons, and a small group of friends have set up a new site with cinder blocks and a large marble sheet. It is currently not clear whether the city will allow this piece of the park to act as a permanent memorial or whether it is another temporary location. The mood was somber as candles, clothing, cards and other objects were taken from the monument and placed on and around this new shrine.

Simmons noted that he had spoken to the owners of the buildings directly east of the park and that they might consider allowing a permanent location on their land only a few feet from where the shrine now sits. Though it now seems hopeful that this memorial will find a place to stay in the near future, Simmons noted sadly, “This will happen again. We’ll all be doing this again, for others, until something drastic changes.”

Avree Koffman, who was driving the car carrying the teenagers, is now out of the University of New Mexico Hospital.