April 2, 2007
Via Associated Press

Driving while intoxicated is a problem confronting Hispanics in North Carolina, where car accidents are the top killer and the number of alcohol-related wrecks are higher for Hispanics than for other groups.

"It makes the Mexicans look bad, very bad," said Eliseo Hernandez, 54, whose son was crippled in a wreck when a young Hispanic man who police said was drinking collided with Hernandez's car.

"The American people say, `Oh, its just another Hispanic, the same as the others,' " she said.

Statistics from the UNC Highway Safety Research Center show that in 2005 there were 37 alcohol-related crashes caused by Hispanics for every 10,000 Hispanics in North Carolina. That is more than three times the number for other groups.

Hispanic leaders say the problem is difficult to combat. Young Hispanic men leave their families and churches to come to the United States for work, but then are alone.

"It's difficult because you're trying to compete with the loneliness," said Tony Asion, public safety director for El Pueblo, a Hispanic advocacy group in Raleigh. "Then, as some learn, more come, and we start again."

The university researchers say men in the 20s and 30s are more than half the people charged with drinking and driving.

Many of the young men are far from home and have some money for the first time but have little driving experience because they were too poor to have a car at home.

On top of that, drinking is seen as a way to show manhood.

"The magic number is 12," said Bobby Dunn, a DWI counselor who works with Spanish-speaking people convicted of DWI. "If you can drink 12 beers, you're a man."

Statistics show that DWI charges for Hispanics have increased since 2000, although at a slower rate than the growth of Hispanic immigrants. Last year, Hispanics accounted for 18 percent of the state's 75,000 DWI arrests but were 6 percent of the population.

Asion of El Pueblo said many Hispanics haven't been exposed to anti-drunk-driving campaigns that are common in the United States and it will take time for the message to be understood.

"It's not something that you can do easily," Asion said. "If it was, then the U.S. population would have already done it."

Source: Charlotte Observer