'STOP DWI' EXAMINES DRUNKEN-DRIVER PROBLEM ALBANY COORDINATOR EDITS NEW BOOK.(Local)

Byline: Joe Mahoney

While traveling along the Slingerlands Bypass the night of July 9, 1982, Betty Martin noticed a crumpled station wagon surrounded by rescue workers, prompting her to say to her husband, "What a terrible accident! I hope no one was hurt."

Later, Betty and Bill Martin would learn the horrible truth: The unrecognizable wreck had contained the body of their 20-year-old daughter, Michele. She was killed when the car was struck head-on by a speeding Maverick that had swerved into the wrong lane of travel.

The driver of the Maverick, George C. Donnelly, was convicted of manslaughter and was sentenced in Albany County Court to serve 5 to 15 years in prison - a penalty Albany County Stop DWI coordinator Denis Foley describes in a just-published book as the "toughest punishment for an alcohol- related fatality in New York state."

The book, Stop DWI - Successful Community Responses to Drunk Driving - is edited by Foley and includes contributions from an array of experts who discuss the problem of the drunken driver and a wide range of approaches to reducing the number of alcohol-related crashes.

Foley said that while tougher DWI laws have helped reduce highway carnage, there are still stubborn aspects of the intoxicated driver problem that have not been addressed by the stricter penalties.

"We saw the new DWI laws as being very successful in how they addressed the problem of the social drinker," Foley said. "But we saw little effect on the chronic alcoholic."

Foley believes much more attention should be paid to the alcoholic drivers, who are responsible for a disproportionately large number of alcohol-related accidents and who continue to be prime candidates for more such mishaps even after they are arrested for DWI.

As for deterring drunken driving, Foley said experts have found the key ingredients to tackling the problem are the severity, certainty, clarity and swiftness of the punishment that is dispensed for violating the DWI law.

Foley said he highlights the case of Michele Martin's tragic death in the book because "that incident set the tone that, in Albany County, drunk driving was a very serious offense."

"Now for the first time, the drunk driver was stigmatized," he said. "He was no longer a happy-go-lucky, comic figure. Instead, he was a killer who could kill your child. That case was the beginning of the end for the drunk driver."

The book, in fact, is dedicated in part to the Martin family, whose members have been actively involved in Remove Intoxicated Drivers (RID). Any proceeds from Stop DWI will be funneled to the Michele Martin Memorial Trust, a DWI victims fund, Foley said.

The book, published by Lexington Books, also features some discussion on the problem of alcholism and general - and how to treat the disease.

Foley, a former criminal-justice coordinator for the state Division of Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse, said he believes any alcoholism treatment program that stresses controlled drinking is automatically "doomed to failure."

The most successful programs, he said, are those such as Alcoholics Anonymous, which discourage drinking altogether and which provide a support group for those with chronic drinking problems.

CAPTION(S):

PHOTO - TIMES UNION PHOTO BY JACK MADIGAN

BY THE BOOK - Albany County Stop DWI coordinator Denis Foley holds the book he edited, which is comprised of experts examining the problem of the drunken driver and the wide range of approaches to reducing the number of alcohol-related crashes.

'STOP DWI' EXAMINES DRUNKEN-DRIVER PROBLEM ALBANY COORDINATOR EDITS NEW BOOK.(Local)

Byline: Joe Mahoney

While traveling along the Slingerlands Bypass the night of July 9, 1982, Betty Martin noticed a crumpled station wagon surrounded by rescue workers, prompting her to say to her husband, "What a terrible accident! I hope no one was hurt."

Later, Betty and Bill Martin would learn the horrible truth: The unrecognizable wreck had contained the body of their 20-year-old daughter, Michele. She was killed when the car was struck head-on by a speeding Maverick that had swerved into the wrong lane of travel.

The driver of the Maverick, George C. Donnelly, was convicted of manslaughter and was sentenced in Albany County Court to serve 5 to 15 years in prison - a penalty Albany County Stop DWI coordinator Denis Foley describes in a just-published book as the "toughest punishment for an alcohol- related fatality in New York state."

The book, Stop DWI - Successful Community Responses to Drunk Driving - is edited by Foley and includes contributions from an array of experts who discuss the problem of the drunken driver and a wide range of approaches to reducing the number of alcohol-related crashes.

Foley said that while tougher DWI laws have helped reduce highway carnage, there are still stubborn aspects of the intoxicated driver problem that have not been addressed by the stricter penalties.

"We saw the new DWI laws as being very successful in how they addressed the problem of the social drinker," Foley said. "But we saw little effect on the chronic alcoholic."

Foley believes much more attention should be paid to the alcoholic drivers, who are responsible for a disproportionately large number of alcohol-related accidents and who continue to be prime candidates for more such mishaps even after they are arrested for DWI.

As for deterring drunken driving, Foley said experts have found the key ingredients to tackling the problem are the severity, certainty, clarity and swiftness of the punishment that is dispensed for violating the DWI law.

Foley said he highlights the case of Michele Martin's tragic death in the book because "that incident set the tone that, in Albany County, drunk driving was a very serious offense."

"Now for the first time, the drunk driver was stigmatized," he said. "He was no longer a happy-go-lucky, comic figure. Instead, he was a killer who could kill your child. That case was the beginning of the end for the drunk driver."

The book, in fact, is dedicated in part to the Martin family, whose members have been actively involved in Remove Intoxicated Drivers (RID). Any proceeds from Stop DWI will be funneled to the Michele Martin Memorial Trust, a DWI victims fund, Foley said.

The book, published by Lexington Books, also features some discussion on the problem of alcholism and general - and how to treat the disease.

Foley, a former criminal-justice coordinator for the state Division of Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse, said he believes any alcoholism treatment program that stresses controlled drinking is automatically "doomed to failure."

The most successful programs, he said, are those such as Alcoholics Anonymous, which discourage drinking altogether and which provide a support group for those with chronic drinking problems.

CAPTION(S):

PHOTO - TIMES UNION PHOTO BY JACK MADIGAN

BY THE BOOK - Albany County Stop DWI coordinator Denis Foley holds the book he edited, which is comprised of experts examining the problem of the drunken driver and the wide range of approaches to reducing the number of alcohol-related crashes.