The number of student criminal drunk driving offenses adjudicated by the Dean's Office has remained steady at about three per year, but students and administrators feel the problem may be overlooked because many of the students who do drink and drive only travel short distances.
Dartmouth's rates of drunk driving fall below the national average. In the Risk Behavior Survey taken by 436 randomly-selected students in the spring of 1998, 1.1 percent of respondents said they had been arrested for Driving Under the Influence or Driving While Intoxicated at some point in the past year, while 7.5 percent reported that they had driven a car while under the influence, according to John Pryor, Director of Undergraduate Evaluation and Research.
In contrast a study done in the same year by The Core Institute on national patterns of alcohol and drug use found that 34.4 percent of college students reported that they had driven under the influence, while 1.5 percent had been arrested for this offense, Pryor said.
"The national figures are four times what we see here and I think that if you know the patterns of drinking at Dartmouth, there are not many people who go off campus to get alcohol," Pryor said, further adding that he suspects that some of the instances of DUI reported in the survey occurred while students were away from campus.
Others agreed that Dartmouth's numbers remain relatively low because of the structure of the social scene on campus.
"The lucky thing for us is that there is not a destination within a reasonable enough distance from campus that students are drawn to," Undergraduate Judicial Affairs Officer Marcia Kelly said, adding that many of the larger surrounding urban areas, like Boston and Montreal, require students to stay overnight because of their distance from campus.
But many of the Dartmouth cases, which often involve trips to nearby locations like Food Stop in Hanover or Fort Lou's in West Lebanon, can be just as dangerous for students who, "dramatically underestimate their level of intoxication," according to Kelly.
"Regardless of the numbers, [drunk driving] does happen. Most people don't do it -- our campus is good that way -- but when it does happen, people don't stop that person because they think it is a short distance," said Margaret Smith, Coordinator, Alcohol & Other Drug Education.
Smith added that the fact that Dartmouth is a small campus gives students a "false sense of security," and that some think that driving a short distance is less dangerous than making a long trip.
But as the campus of Colgate University sadly learned last November, the length of the trip in the car of a drunk driver has no bearing on one's safety.
Four young people, including a freshman at Colgate, were killed when the car they were riding in hit a tree.
The driver of the car, who drove his six passengers only a short distance prior to the crash, was charged with four counts of 2nd degree Vehicular Manslaughter.
"[Drunk driving] is such a stupid thing, you could kill people or kill yourself, to save yourself a five-minute walk," said one anonymous Dartmouth student, who himself was arrested and convicted of DUI.
Another male student who also wished to remain unidentified told The Dartmouth of a terrifying car ride, in which he rode from an off-campus party back to campus with a female driver who he said was definitely intoxicated.
"I was shocked. I assumed on a campus of this size that I would never experience drunk driving," the student said.
The driver sped and swerved all over the road until she slammed on the brakes, angry at her friend, who tried in vain to get her to stop.
She eventually hit the curb, affording her passengers an opportunity to jump out of the car, the male student told The Dartmouth.
The police did not pick up the driver on this winter evening but the anonymous student said "she clearly would have been pulled over" if a police officer was in the area.
"Generally Dartmouth students are pretty smart about [drunk driving] and you could tell this by the way people were arguing with her about it. I think people need to be aware of it and watch out for their friends more," the male student concluded.
He added, "I think that if anybody is drunk driving it is a big problem because other lives are endangered."
A new Risk Behavior survey, which will include questions relating to student drunk driving patterns, will be released today in order to gather more recent statistics about the campus.
