Motorists gave way to a swarm of emergency responders converging on one of the busiest blocks of Main Street in Binghamton's West Side.
Then ahorrifying scene came into view.
A 47-year-old man this Monday evening ofApril 24 had been hit by a 2010 Hyundai Elantra, his body dragged under the car for several yards before it came to a stop.
Ronald I. Richardson was dead. And the Hyundai driver,Jennifer Grenchus, now is facing a vehicular manslaughter charge with allegations of drug-impaired driving.
For decades, enforcement and public education resources have targeted drunk driving. But now drug-impaired driving is growing as a cause of accidents and deaths across the United States and in Europe as alcohol-impaired driving is reportedly decreasing.
In 2015, just under 6 out of 10 fatally-injured drivers in the U.S. were tested for drugs. Of those, about a third showed evidence of drugs, according to federal data cited by a study on drug-impaired driving by the Governors Highway Safety Association and the Foundation for Advancing Alcohol Responsibility in April.
Dozens of drugs —legal and illegal — can impair driving. "Many drivers do not understand how various drugs can affect driving ability and increase crash risk," according to the study.
Consider the late May driving under the influence arrest of golfer Tiger Woods in Florida. A toxicology report released Aug. 14 showed he had five different drugs in his body:THC, the active ingredient for marijuana, painkillers Vicodin and Dilaudid,anxiety and sleep drug Xanaxand the anti-insomnia drug Ambien.
Across New York State, arrest trends reflect the nation: In recent years, incidentsof alcohol-impaired drivershave declined slightly while arrests for drugged driving are becoming more frequent.
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Alcohol-related vehicle crashes remain the worst problem.In 2016, there were 111 alcohol-related vehicle crashes across Broome County, while drugs werea factor in 15 crashes that same year.
Tompkins County had 39 drug-related crashes in 2015, and 77crashes that were traced to drunk drivers. The county did not list any drug-related crashes in 2016, but 78 crashes that year involvedDWI.
In Chemung County, there were just two drug-related crashes in 2016 and in 2015, there were three. But so far this year, there have been four. The Chemung County Sheriff's Office also reported eight drugged driving arrests so far in 2017, compared to four in 2015.
Just as with alcohol, mixing drugs and driving can bring lethal consequences— about 4,000 drivers nationwide who are killed each year have drugs in their systems, according to the advocacy group Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
"Given the increased prevalence in abuse of prescription medications and the opioid crisis, I think those things go hand-in-hand with an increased frequencyin drugged driving," said Johnson City Police Chief Brent Dodge. "It's every bit as dangerous, and illegal,as drunk driving."
The legal limit for drunk driving in New York State is a 0.08 percent blood alcohol content, which can be detected with a breathalyzer or blood test, but no such limit exists for drug impairment.
"Maybe someone wants the same type of 'high,' but they just don't want alcohol because if they get caught, the cops can smell it easily," said Lt. Daniel Donahue of the Tompkins County Sheriff's Office. "Think twice: you can become just as impaired by prescription or non-prescription medications as with alcohol."
All police officers are trained in the detection of alcohol, but within the past decade, authorities have been pushing to expand those skills to include detecting other forms of impairment such as narcotics or depressants, according to Broome County STOP-DWI Coordinator Chris Marion.
Sometimes, he said, mixing thesesubstances even in small amountscan affect a person before they realize they're impaired.
"You have people using illicit drugs," Marion said, "but you're also going to arrest people who don't think they're doing anything wrong: For example, the middle-aged mother who takes her medications as prescribed by her doctor ... and has one glass of wine after work, then drives home."
What do the numbers say?
Some arrests for impaired driving involve both alcohol and drugs, according to the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles. Annually, the state says, alcohol-impaired drivers tend to vastly outnumber those driving under the influence of drugs.
According to state records, 32,502 drunk driving arrests were made in 2015 (the most recent year available by the DMV) compared to 4,282 arrests for drugged driving.In 2014, the state reported 33,776 drunk driving arrests and 3,766 for drugged driving.
Broome County's STOP-DWI program, which tracks crash data for the county, saysalcohol-related crashes dropped slightly: In 2015, there were 118 and in 2016, there were 111.
In a slight contrast to the statewide arrest numbers, drugged driving crashes in Broome have fluctuated. There were 33 drug-related crashes in 2015 andlast year, it dropped to 15 crashes.
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What's the difference?
According to the Broome County STOP-DWI program, drivers with high blood alcohol contents who used drugs along with alcohol are more likely to get charged with a drunk driving offense, ratherthan for driving while impaired by drugs. The reason, officials say, is that police can more easily classify the driver's alcohol impairmentwhen the two are mixed.
"The first thing alcohol starts doing to your body is it impairs your judgment, it lowers your inhibitions, it slows your reaction time and it causes a loss of coordination," Marion said."The drunker you get, the less drunk you think you are, because of the effect alcohol has on your brain."
During a June 12 training session in Binghamton for Broome County police agencies, Jermaine Galloway,a retired police officer from Idaho, saidlaw enforcement officials around the country are seeing a range of drivers under the influence of illicit of prescription drugs and alcohol.
Sometimes, he said, a driver is impaired by abit of both.
"We're seeing people get high behind the wheel and not realize they're high because they think (just) alcohol means impairment," Galloway said, "but drugs are something that some people take (legally) every day."
"Impaired is impaired," he added. "If someone were to T-bone your family member ... would you care that they were impaired on drugs versus alcohol?"
Given the proliferation of the heroin epidemic and the lingering issue ofprescription drug abuse, it's also not a surprise that drugged driving would be occurring more frequently, according to Southern Tier police officials.
There are any number of explanations for why someone would drink and drive, police say, but some people might not think of some drugs as taboo.
That's why it's critical to know the side effects of medication you're taking and take heed of any warnings about operating machinery, he said, and that includes vehicles.
Dodge said it'snot uncommonfor police officers to also find heroin users pulled over in parking lots to "shoot up."
Police revived two men who overdosed on heroin Feb. 11 in the parking lot of Sears in the Oakdale Mall in Johnson City, while the car was still running.
Dodge said most instances like this are anecdotal— police don't always catch the drug user driving— but drug users are not usually waiting until they sober up to get back behind the wheel.
That also can make it harder for police to detect them out on the road, Dodge added, since drugged drivers are more likely to be out during the daytime. By comparison, he said, drunk driving tends to be more frequent at night when traffic volume on most streets is lower.
What police look for
For Vestal Police Officer Steve Will, the past four years have racked up some 125 drug evaluations for drivers all across Broome County. During the past two years, he's averaged about 30 evaluations; this year alone, he's performed 22.
As atrained Drug Recognition Expert, Will is among a few police officers used in different counties to assist with identifying whether an impaired driver is under the influence of drugs when signs of alcohol intoxication are not so easily detectable.
"What we see around here is a lot of narcotics and most of the time, it's heroin," Will said. "Meth has been making a comeback;I also see drivers taking anti-anxiety medications or other prescriptions."
Training to become a DRE spans three weeks and some counties only have several officers certified.
Chemung County Sheriff Christopher Moss said police agencies might have to find ways to secure more cost-effective and less time-consuming methods oftraining for officers to help them better counter the increasing presence of drugged driving.
It's critical that police officers always know what to look for, Moss said, because there's a slim chance that a drug-impaired driver could slip away if pulled over by an officer who does not recognize the signs.
"I think with drugs, it's similar to alcohol, where people think they can handle it and they have a tolerance," Moss said. "If you are taking prescription medications, make sure you've read the label and know whether you should be operating a vehicle."
Alcohol-impaired drivers can be detected primarily by an odor of alcohol coming from the driver's breath. There areother clues including slurred speech or bloodshot and watery eyes, that police use as the basis to make an arrest.
According to MADD, most drugs can have measurable effects on your body even in small amounts. And they share some similarities with alcohol impairment:
- Coordination: Drugs can affect nerves and muscles, which makes steering, braking, accelerating, and manipulation of vehicle difficult.
- Reaction time: Drugs slow response and reaction times.
- Judgment: Drugs have cognitive effects that can hinder a person’s ability to assess risks and avoid potential hazards by decreasing fear and thus increasing risk-taking behavior.
- Tracking: Drugs inhibit a person’s ability to stay in their lane and maintain a safe distance from the car in front of them.
Looking into a driver's eyes is a big help in trying to determine the substance, Will said. Opioids, for instance, will make the pupils stay small even when the officer shines a light into the person's eyes.
"More officers are picking up on the signs of drug impairment," Will said. "With alcohol, sometimes you can smell it before you get to the driver's window and there's the BAC limit, but it's not always easy with drugs:There is no limit, it just goes by impairment."
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