Center Court
- Vol. 6, No. 2 - Spring 2003
NCSC Works with Court
Associations to Reduce Alcohol-Related Accidents
Courts can help
reduce the number of car accidents that involve alcohol through strong
judicial leadership That’s the premise of an ongoing project by
the National Center for State Courts and the National Highway and Traffic
Safety Administration (NHTSA): “Judicial Leadership to Reduce the
Incidence of Impaired Driving.”
NCSC and NHTSA
convened an expert panel in Williamsburg, Va., on January 31 to discuss
what courts can do to decrease the number of alcohol-related accidents.
Representatives from all levels of state courts and court associations, a
state judicial educator, representatives of law enforcement, and
researchers participated on the panel.
The panel
received an update on the project’s progress so far, a briefing on the
Virginia Alcohol and Safety Action Program, and an introduction to a draft
curriculum on handling impaired driving cases. An important feature
of this project involves collaborating with national court associations
by:
-
Making
state court leadership aware of the initiative though presentations
to the Conference of Chief Justices and Conference of State Court
Administrators
-
Focusing on
organizations that serve trial court judges and court
administrators, such as the National Association for Court
Management and the American Judges Association
-
Encouraging
the National Association of State Judicial Educators to incorporate
information on impaired driving into ongoing educational programming
A draft
curriculum on impaired driving, information modules on the World Wide Web,
and a distance learning course are other important features of the
project.
Serving on the
expert panel were Gary Lumpkin, presiding judge, Court of Criminal Appeals
of Oklahoma and a member of NCSC’s Board of Directors; James D.
Gingerich, director of the Administrative Office of the Courts, Arkansas;
Michael R. McAdam, judge, Kansas City (Missouri) Municipal Court and
president-elect of the American Judges Association; Claire Walker, unit
supervisor, Boulder (Colorado) Combined Courts; Richard D. Reaves,
executive director, Institute of Continuing Judicial Education, Georgia;
Vincent Burgess, Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles; Steven Stosny,
CompassionPower, Maryland; Joseph B. Kilma, commander, Phoenix (Arizona)
Police Department; Brian Chodrow, NHTSA; and Robyn D. Robertson, Traffic
Injury Research Foundation, Ottawa, Ontario.
For more
information, contact Victor E.
Flango, vice president, NCSC Research
Division.
What Can
Courts Do to Reduce Impaired Driving?
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