New Mexico has one of the highest rates of alcohol-involved driving deaths in the nation, a problem that advocates and legislators alike are trying to address.
The Mesilla Valley DWI Resource Center is a nonprofit organization in Las Cruces that educates offenders about the fatal consequences of driving intoxicated. Robert Nieto is the head of the resource center, he began his involvement after his son was killed by a drunk driver.
“People that participate have been convicted of a DWI and they’re court-mandated to participate in the Victim Impact Panel Program,” he said. “In New Mexico, our state is weak in enforcing DWI convictions. The sentencing, the fines are very weak. You have people that come into this program on their fourth, fifth, sixth DWI. Even though the law states that if you’re a three-time offender, you’re going to do like 18 months in prison. But it doesn’t happen.”
Nieto said that after legal proceedings, the man responsible for his son’s death served less than a year in prison.
“Our son was taken in a DWI crash, his life. The individual was facing 16 years in prison with all the offenses,” he said. “So they ended up coming up with giving him a two-year sentence for the offense of taking our son’s life. And he went to prison, and in New Mexico, if you do one good day in prison, you get one day off your sentence. So he ended up doing 11 months in prison.”
In a2019 study by the Foundation for Advancing Alcohol Responsibility, the national average for alcohol-impaired driving fatalities per 100k is 3.1. The state of New Mexico doubles that national average.
New Mexico ranks second amongst all states in alcohol-impaired driving fatalities. So what is being done to address these problematic stats? In Dona Ana County, one deterrent strategy is DUI checkpoints.
Jonathon Almanza is a sergeant for the Doña Ana County Sheriff’s Office. Sergeant Almanza said that the checkpoints help deter drunk driving.
“I think they’re very effective. There’s multiple times where you’ll have individuals turning around prior to checkpoints. We’ll have what we call chase vehicles, which will be parked at the ends of the entrances of the checkpoint, which then would be able to identify those vehicles that do turn around, and make stops on those individuals to see if they are impaired,” he said. “There are so many opportunities now of being able not to get behind the wheel. Uber, Lyft, I know the county also has the Safe Ride Home Program as well, so there’s multiple opportunities for individuals not to get behind the wheel and use a different alternative to get home safely.”
According to a 2021 report by the University of New Mexico for the New Mexico Department of Transportation, Las Cruces’s fatal crashes involving alcohol were 4 per 100k citizens, still above the national average. According to New Mexico State Representative Joanne Ferrary, who initially founded the Mesilla Valley DWI Resource Center, reducing alcohol-related road deaths can be achieved through legislation.
“Right now we are looking at raising the alcohol excise tax, which should help reduce consumption, as well as generate funding to go into programs sucha s the local DWI programs that exist now, to behavioral health programs throughout the state, ” she said.
Ferrary said that beyond raising taxes, more needs to be done in terms of awareness and enforcement.
“We need to do more prevention, making sure that kids aren’t able to sneak drinks into school and be drinking all day,” she said. “But also our awareness programs tied to enforcement, and people knowing how much it’s going to cost them if they get a DUI and making sure that those penalties are enforced. We have a lot of potential through our drug courts to make sure that people are referred to treatment and accountable to the courts.”
As for Robert Nieto, he said that stricter penalties for repeat offenders are something that he hopes to see in the future.
“Our legislation in the state of New Mexico really needs to change our DWI laws. I think until they do that, I think that’s when New Mexico will have an impact [on DWIs.]”
Nieto said that while he’s disappointed in the state’s legal system, he’s confident that his work with the DWI resource center has helped offenders on their path to recovery.
