C. Fraser Smith: Dwyer is a danger to all Maryland drivers

Colleagues say Del. Don Dwyer should resign from the House of Delegates so he can reconsider the direction of his life.

He’d been convicted of operating his boat under the influence of alcohol in 2012. And 10 days ago, he was charged with driving his car under the influence.

He’d become an embarrassment to the lawmakers.

Oh yes, and a threat to public safety. Police said he was driving erratically at 70 mph.

He may still be on the road in a neighborhood near you. In Maryland, your driver’s license may be lifted by the police pending a day in court if you are charged with a DUI. But you get a 45-day temporary license while your case is heard.

Due process and public safety can be in conflict, I suppose. It’s not easy to find the right balance. Getting more effective drunk-driving laws on the books in Maryland has been a struggle, so perhaps dealing with what looks like a loophole has been set aside for the moment.

Why call it a loophole, you may ask? When studies show that drunks still drive even after their licenses have been suspended, why do we enable this abuse? With their 45-day license, offenders become, in effect, state-sanctioned drunk drivers. Due process has prevailed in such matters.

Dwyer was about to ask the court to spare him a jail term as the result of his earlier DUI conviction. He’d been operating his boat (which he called “Legislator”) during a crash that injured several people, including himself.

Then came the second charge: driving under the influence, according to police, at 70 mph, swerving back and forth on the highway after what he claimed were two beers in Baltimore. He refused to take the breathalyzer test.

Of course, we know that drunk driving is not a new problem. There have been signs that Mothers Against Drunk Driving and others were having some positive effect — that people were less likely to drink and drive.

In 2011, according to the National Transportation Safety Board, alcohol-impaired-driving fatalities declined nationwide by 2.5 percent over 2010.

But not in Maryland, where drunk-driving fatalities rose from 154 in 2010 to 162 in 2011, a 5.2 percent increase. An alcohol-impaired-driving fatality is defined by the NTSB as a person killed in a crash involving a driver or motorcycle rider with a blood alcohol concentration of .08 gram per deciliter or greater. Dwyer’s level after the boating offense was .24.

So, the most urgent question for the rest of us — those of us who are not in the assembly — is not whether Dwyer should resign. The question is how to get him off the road.

Jail would work and may well be the answer when he returns to court. But what of the long term?

The delegate has shown by his behavior that he needs help. He’s responded by going through the usual stages of tearful remorse and promises to address his problem.

He has a big one. But so do we. Drunk driving endangers us all.

No doubt a relative or an assembly colleague has tried to get his attention. Most people in his situation have been counseled, have been taken to the woodshed and made to endure interventions. These are all fine efforts and all are likely to fail at least in the early stages.

Dwyer needs to hear himself say, as they do at Alcoholics Anonymous: “My name is Don and I’m an alcoholic.”

There’s no shame in saying that. It would be a commendable, if not a brave act.

The shame is in not saying it.

C. Fraser Smith is senior news analyst for WYPR-FM. His column appears Fridays in The Daily Record. His email address is fsmith@wypr.org.