TheBakersfieldCalifornian.com

One way to get arrested for drunken driving is to nearly run into a cop car.

That's how 34-year-old Geraldo Rodriguez got busted last December after drinking with his cousin and work buddies the night of Oscar De La Hoya's last fight.

That night, his boss told him he was too drunk to drive. So he gave his keys to his cousin, who Rodriguez recalls also wasn't in good shape.

The cousin drove until they stopped at a store to buy some more beer. That both men already had too much to drink wasn't discussed, he said.

Rodriguez took his keys back. The two pounded some more beers down at a park.

And then, as Rodriguez drove on Center Street, he almost hit a police car.

He fell during the field sobriety test. He blew a .19 blood-alcohol level -- more than twice the legal limit of .08 -- at the jail.

"I woke up in the jail," Rodriguez recalled this month in the east Bakersfield apartment where he lives by himself. "I thought, 'Where am I? What am I doing here?'"

It's a question his choices forced him to answer.

This December, police and the California Highway Patrol will be out in force trying to stop drunken drivers -- and the injuries and fatal crashes they cause -- during the holiday season.

"This (drunken driving tragedies) is something that is avoidable," CHP Capt. Brian Smith said at a news conference announcing the special enforcement effort.

The problem is huge.

In Kern County, nearly 500 drivers a year injure themselves or others in felony DUI incidents.

About 47 people a year are killed in drunken driving crashes.

Beyond the numbers, the fallout for victims' families is severe and ever-present, said Carla Pearson, coordinator for Mothers Against Drunken Driving in Kern.

She lost her 23-year-old son, Adam Pierce, to a thrice-convicted drunken driver seven years ago.

"It changes your life forever," she said. "It's a feeling I can't ever seem to dismiss. There is never closure. You just learn to live with it."

She said she believes people who turn on the key while drunk "know the consequences of their actions, but for some reason, they still do it."

Learning the consequences

Rodriguez was ruining his life with a very expensive lesson.

It's a lesson more than 6,000 people encountered in Kern in 2008. For about 1,500 of those, it was their second, third or higher DUI offense.

About 4,400 people were ordered last year by the courts into a program called STEPS, or Special Treatment, Education and Prevention Services.

Rodriguez credits the counselors there with helping him turn his life around after his second DUI arrest.

He wasn't ready to change after the first, which came when he was 19.

"I was young at the time and wasn't thinking," he said.

But this time, he was the father of three and working a job where he was happy and his bosses were happy with him.

He had a lot to lose and he lost much of it.

The money he saved to buy a new truck went to his fines and STEPS costs, he said.

The best way out was to stop drinking, and that's what he did.

"I know if I drink another beer, it isn't going to be one beer," he said. "It's going to be one after another."

STEPS worked with him, to the point of teachers staying after class to talk to him, helping him chart a new path, he said, as he wants to get his old construction-related job back.

He said he feels good that he hasn't had a drink in nearly a year. He said he knows it's important not to hang out with some of his buddies who loved to drink a lot.

"I'm trying to have a normal, decent life," he said. "I want to set a good example for my kids."

Numbers give context to arrests

As a Hispanic man, Rodriguez belongs to the largest group of those arrested for drunken driving here.

The share of Hispanics in STEPS is higher than their portion of Kern's population -- 52.2 percent to 47.1 percent.

Whites are about 41 percent in both, and blacks are about 5 percent in both. American Indians, Asians and others mirror their small percentage of the population.

And even though women are the fastest-growing group in drunken driving arrests, men still overwhelm the DUI pool -- 85 percent to 15 percent.

Rodriguez acknowledged his culture influenced his own drinking. Men talked all the time about having a beer after work, he said.

"My father was a weekend warrior," he said. "My uncles drank a lot. I would look at them and it looked like they were having a good time. When I was young, I thought it was cool."

Laborers who drink after work is a recognized part of the drunken driving problem, California Highway Patrol Officer Robert Rodriguez has said.

Another part, evident in the STEPS program, are young people who like to party or bar hop. Nearly 47 percent of drunken drivers are ages 21 to 30 and another 6 percent are age 20 and younger.

People at a recent STEPS group counseling session and class in Rosedale bore that out. For the most part, they were young and attractive. The youngest were 20, the oldest, 42.

How much do they drink?

Rodriguez agreed to tell his story of how a person can learn from his mistakes, and to be identified. About 20 other STEPS clients agreed to talk about their lives on the condition they not be identified.

The blood-alcohol levels reported by the group ranged from a low of .07 to several over .20 with a high of .24.

A recurring pattern among those at the higher levels were men and women who began drinking alcohol at 12, 13 or 14.

Building a tolerance to alcohol is like building a tolerance to running long distances; a person has to work at it for awhile.

Studies show most first-time drinkers would pass out before they reach .15. But heavy drinkers can consume mind-boggling amounts.

The best illustration at STEPS was a young man who began his evening with "a 20-pack challenge." That's 20 cans of beer.

He left to another place where he played another drinking game. "I almost blacked out," he said.

But then he realized he left his cellphone at the first place. He debated, "Should I go get it?" His answer, "Yeah, I'll be all right."

Somehow he made it to the apartment in his pickup and tried to back into a parking space. He crashed into a tree, passed out and left his pickup running for about five hours.

"I awoke to four cops banging on my truck," he said.

Others in STEPS admitted over-the-top irresponsibility -- one man drinking steadily on a road trip from San Diego to Bakersfield; another man drinking 16 to 20 shots; and a petite blonde driving with a .23 blood alcohol.

While no one at STEPS specifically said they didn't deserve to get arrested, several described "if only" this or that didn't happen, they could have slipped by.

In a class on alcoholism, STEPS teacher Don Gilam said judgment is one of the first abilities to go when someone drinks.

"What comes across my desk," Gilam said, "are people who cannot hold themselves accountable to themselves. If you've done it (driving drunk) before, it could happen again."

STEPS counselor Chris Essepian said one of her goals is to help people understand the truth of their situations and the consequences of their actions.

"You need to have a plan (to avoid driving under the influence) after you leave here or you'll be back," she told her clients.

Does that mean the STEPS clients have sworn off drinking? A few yes, but most, no.

The STEPS clients recognized they could have killed someone and were thankful they didn't.

One said his arrest has opened his eyes. "Hopefully, it saves a life in the future, maybe my own."