An event like the Park Tavern tragedy reflects society’s inaction on alcohol

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The tragic loss of life at the Park Tavern on Sunday night in St. Louis Park is one more in a long, long list of preventable, alcohol-related tragedies.

According to news articles, Steven Frane Bailey had a blood-alcohol level of 0.325% when police encountered him. This is more than four times what is considered the legal limit to operate a vehicle in Minnesota. He also had five previous drunken-driving convictions. Why did he even have a valid license? Why didn’t he have an interlock device in his car to prevent him from starting it if he was intoxicated? Why did others allow him to continue drinking and to drive? He may have been in contact with others who observed his consumption and/or provided him with more alcohol. Clearly a lot of opportunities were missed that may have prevented this awful tragedy.

His decision to drive to the Park Tavern after already being impaired was likely made because he wanted to consume more alcohol. Hennepin County attorney Mary Moriarty was quoted as saying: “In a time where we have more options than ever to ensure a safe ride home, Mr. Bailey made the choice to get behind the wheel ... .” But he wasn’t even going home; he was going to drink more. Bailey made the impaired decision to get behind the wheel and he ended up killing two and dramatically altering the lives of many other people, including the injured, their friends, families, co-workers and all of us affected by it.

When something like this happens, we wring our hands in horror, yet such things continue to happen with all too much regularity. Many of these tragedies are preventable, and usually there is a long list of people who may have been able to prevent them or at least reduce their likelihood.

For 34 years I worked in the substance-abuse field with many good people who worked hard, yet too often unsuccessfully, to significantly reduce alcohol and other drug-related tragedies like this one.

Among the barriers were and are lawmakers reluctant to impose strong and effective laws that would help reduce the problem. For example, raising the price of alcohol is known to reduce consumption. Yet the last time the Minnesota Legislature raised the alcohol excise tax was in 1987, nearly 40 years ago.

The excise tax in Minnesota on “strong beer” is 15 cents a gallon. That is 1.4 cents per 12-ounce bottle or can. It is 95 cents a gallon for “strong wine” over 14% alcohol content, or about 3.7 cents for a 5-ounce glass of wine. And it is $5.03 for distilled spirits (liquor), meaning a generous 1.5 ounce shot of liquor in a drink comes to 5.9 cents.

Additionally, the excise tax is not adjusted for inflation, so while the price of virtually everything has greatly increased in the past 37 years including the price of beer, wine and liquor, the amount of tax in the cost of each drink has not changed at all. In reality, it has significantly decreased as a percentage of the total cost of the drink.

Just about every legislative session, lawmakers are asked to raise the excise tax or at least adjust it for inflation to both reduce dangerous alcohol consumption and all its related problems as well as to increase revenue for the state’s needs — and for 37 years they have refused.

Lowering the legal blood-alcohol content from 0.10% to 0.08% was a long, hard battle that finally was successful in Minnesota in 2005. Yet there are many people, including me, who would be intoxicated, impaired and should not drive even at that lower level.

But it is not only lawmakers who enable intoxicated/impaired people to drive and endanger all of us. Lawmakers, prosecutors and judges have been known to not want to be too harsh on drunken driving, especially if they drink. Realizing they may at times exceed the 0.08% blood-alcohol limit, they may be reluctant to be too harsh on others.

Next there are those who sell and serve alcohol and benefit financially from its sale. Certainly no one serves anyone who is already impaired with the intent of contributing to a tragedy. But it is often hard to know when someone should be cut off. It can also be dangerous if the impaired person is behaving aggressively.

Finally there are friends and family members who may provide alcohol to people who are already impaired or may soon be impaired. After all, no one wants to be a “downer.”

Steven Bailey had consumed enough alcohol before arriving at the Park Tavern on Sunday night to have a blood-alcohol content that measured 0.325% after he crashed through the barrier, killing two people, injuring several others and causing grief to many, many others. Who knows how many others may have provided him with the alcohol that got him to that level.

If we really are serious about preventing further tragedies like this, we all have to take some responsibility and action to change our culture that currently allows tragedies like this to continue to happen all too often.

We need to take responsibility for ourselves first and foremost. We have to examine the roles we play and the responsibilities we have for our friends, our family members, our co-workers, our customers, our constituents, etc.

Please remember that each and every one of us can make a difference!

Jay Jaffee, of Minneapolis, is a retired alcohol and other drug abuse prevention coordinator for the Minnesota Department of Health.