By Isidro Camacho
Counts of driving under the influence and speeding in Lexington have picked up since 2014, according to a report from the city’s police department.
The report compiles seven categories of criminal violations from 2013 to 2015. Those include misdemeanor arrests, felony arrests, drunk in public, DUI, speeding, overtime parking and marijuana possession.
In 2013, there were 25 recorded instances of DUI. The total dipped to 19 counts in 2014 but last year it grew to 33.
Lexington has had three fatal drunken driving accidents since 2000, according to information from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Two of them happened in 2013 and the other in 2010.
In Rockbridge County, sheriff’s deputies gauge crime trends by examining charges they see each week, Lieutenant Investigator Miles Kelly said.
“About 75 – 80 percent of the DUI cases we see come from local residents,” Kelly said.
The county, however, does not compile an annual report like Lexington’s. One county records clerk said that would be too time consuming. Rockbridge County has more than three times the population of Lexington.
DUI related deaths in the county have fluctuated in the past 10 years. The most recent data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration show two fatal drunk-driving incidents in 2013, down from 10 in 2012. The county averages six DUI accidents per year since 2005.
In Virginia, 740 people were killed in accidents related to drunken driving in 2013, down from 947 deaths in 2005.
Tougher Virginia legislation aimed to prevent DUI accidents seems to be working. A 2012 bill required the installation of ignition interlock Breathalyzers for first-time DUI offenders. Data from the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles suggest that the number of DUI convictions fell 5 percent to about 27,300 statewide in 2013 from 28,700 convictions in 2012.
Recorded instances of speeding have followed a similar trajectory to DUIs in Lexington. The report showed 214 speeding violations in 2013. The number fell to 138 in the following year, but rose to 254 in 2015.
The Lexington Police Department has increased traffic surveillance in specific areas to combat speeding, according to a memo from the city manager. Lieutenant M.R. Frost assigned more patrol around the intersection of West Nelson Street and Liberty Hall Road after a number of residents said that area is a hot spot for speeding.
The only other type of crime that has risen since 2013 is drunk-in-public violations. Citations for those charges increased from 33 to 57 last year.
The number of marijuana possession charges in 2015 is nearly a third of what it was in 2013. Felony arrests also declined from 107 in 2013 to 40 in 2015.
The Lexington Police Department did not comment on these recent statistics.