Anchorage Daily News

A spike in the number of traffic deaths involving alcohol or other drugs in Anchorage this year is at odds with recent trends statewide and puts the city at its highest rate of impaired road fatalities in more than 10 years, according to Anchorage police numbers.

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While in overall decline throughout the state since 2000, the number of drunken driving fatalities in Anchorage is seeing a surge following a relative lull during the past two years. The percent of traffic deaths that involved impaired drivers or victims this year is at its highest level since 1996, when 92 percent of the city's fatalities were connected to drugs and alcohol, according to the numbers.

There have been at least 12 alcohol-related traffic deaths in Anchorage this year, police Sgt. Matt Bloodgood said. Two more involved drugs, and police are still awaiting the toxicology screening results from two other fatal accidents. All told, up to 16 of Anchorage's 21 traffic fatalities this year may have involved at least one impaired driver or pedestrian, Bloodgood said.

That's 76 percent of the city's traffic deaths.

"A tremendous number of them are drug and alcohol involved, and those are factors that people that are driving have control over," Bloodgood said.

Priot to this year's spike, alcohol-related fatalities in Anchorage had been on the decline in recent years, Anchorage police Lt. Paul Honeman said. He attributed those declines to increased enforcement and education, as well as police bringing back the traffic unit.

Of the surge this year, "We hope it's an anomaly," Honeman said. "If there was an exact answer, we'd be able to come up with an exact solution."

Alaska, with 23 alcohol-related traffic deaths in 2006, had the fewest of all states, according to the National Highway Safety Administration.

As of Nov. 19, 27 percent of the Alaska's 73 traffic deaths so far this year were alcohol-related, according to the Alaska Highway Safety Office. Last year, 31 percent of Alaska's traffic deaths were alcohol-related, down significantly from 2001, when nearly half of them were.

"Our fatalities by drunk drivers are going down, but not the serious injuries," said Cindy Cashen, administrator of the Alaska Highway Safety Office. "The number of DUI injuries has flat-lined."

To combat the deadly spike in Anchorage, police are stepping up their enforcement this holiday season, Bloodgood said. Police working overtime -- an effort paid for with a federal grant -- are upping their patrols during the big holidays, he said, while other officers are focusing on DUI enforcement as their primary job in the coming weeks.

That's in line with what departments are doing across the state, Cashen said. DUI enforcement teams are patrolling the state's highways, and officers are working overtime to nab buzzed drivers, she said.

Alaska typically sees a spike in DUIs in the summertime as well as around the holidays, Cashen said, and weekends can be particularly bad.

The best way to avoid becoming a statistic is to drive slowly, use a designated driver and buckle up, Bloodgood said.

Of the total traffic deaths in the state this year, 42 percent of the victims were not wearing their seat belts, Cashen said, and by buckling up, the chances of surviving a wreck double.

"Drunk drivers tend to drive more aggressively, so when they hit you, they hit you hard," Cashen said. "Wearing a seat belt is the best defense against drunk drivers."

Find James Halpin online at adn.com/contact/jhalpin or call him at 257-4589.