Mark Robinson
Assistant News Editor
Although they are still grieving, the friends of VCU student Carolina Perez will not let the cause of her death be forgotten.
A small group of students who knew Perez plans to push initiatives that address drunken driving within the VCU community to the university’s administration.
They plan to request that the university devote more resources to raise awareness about the dangers of drunken driving, as well as implement more aggressive preventative measures, like more DUI checkpoints throughout the school year and stricter punishments for students who drink and drive.
Qasim Kazmi, a junior biology major in the pre-med concentration, knew Perez through the VCU Acceleration Program. He said if immediate action is taken by students and the administration, Perez’s story could have national impact in the fight against drunken driving.
“If this story was to reach others, and they knew that there was a university student who was killed by a student from the same university because of drunk driving, it would really wake people up,” Kazmi said. “But before it gets out to the entire country, we need to realize it ourselves.”
Carolina Perez, a sophomore biology major at VCU, was killed in a DUI accident on Wednesday, Feb. 22 that also left two other students injured.
The accused driver, Varinder “Vick” Chahal, is also a VCU student. He has been charged with involuntary manslaughter, driving under the influence and refusal to submit to blood and breath tests; he faces up to 20 years in prison.
Neither Chahal nor any of the four passengers in his car were injured in the accident.
Currently, the VCU alcohol and drug policy does not specifically address drunken driving. Kazmi said there needs to be clear, harsh consequences for students who drink and drive. Off-campus incidents should be punished as severely as on-campus ones, he said.
“This is something that affects the entire university so the administration should take the lead on this, make it a higher priority and address it,” Kazmi said.
Reuban Rodriguez, associate vice provost and dean of students at VCU, said in general, the university takes an educational approach to drunken-driving prevention.
If a student is caught and convicted of DUI, whether on or off-campus, they are required to attend counseling and go through the judicial affairs process to be punished, Rodriguez said.
The university relies on bystander training to reach the small percentage of students who self-identify as drunken drivers. Because the statistics show an overwhelming majority of students who do not drink and drive, the students who do are not easy to target, Rodriguez said.
“It’s a small percentage, and we may not be able to find those people very readily,” Rodriguez said. “If we’re doing extensive marketing and education, there are still going to be some people, perhaps, who don’t receive the message or don’t understand the message.”
Each spring, VCU participates in the American College Health Association’s National College Health Assessment. The survey collects data about student alcohol, tobacco and drug use, as well as sexual and mental health, nutrition and personal safety.
Five thousand VCU students were emailed the survey in 2011; more than 1,800 responded.
About 84 percent of VCU students who responded to the survey said they use a designated driver all or most of the time if they drink alcohol. Less than 4 percent of VCU students who responded said they never use a designated driver, according to the survey.
Linda Hancock, Ph.D, director of The Wellness Resource Center at VCU, said society has conditioned the majority of people to recognize drunken driving is dangerous. Even so, she said, a small segment of the population ignores the societal norm.
More than twice as many male students (5.3 percent) as female students (2.1 percent) will drive after drinking five or more drinks, according to the survey results.
That number of male students at VCU who will drive after drinking more than five drinks is slightly higher than the 2010 national average from the same survey (4 percent).
“It’s not surprising that there is this recalcitrant group of people that just won’t budge,” Hancock said. “Those are the people you’ve got to pick up at a DUI checkpoint. You’ve got to change the culture.
“It takes a culture that sets up a system that will give people who are doing the wrong thing – that have major biological addiction issues – a reason to change,” Hancock said. “So we do need more DUI checkpoints. We do need to advertise it. Everyone needs to feel like they’re at risk.”
Last year, the VCU Police Department held six DUI checkpoints on campus with the help of the Richmond Police Department, State Police and Alcohol Beverage Control.
The number of checkpoints held each year depends on how much funding the VCU Police receive through a DMV grant program, said Chris Preuss, interim assistant chief for the VCU Police.
As a condition of receiving a grant, the DMV requires that an announcement is made before a checkpoint occurs. The police do not have to say where the checkpoint will be, but do have to publicize that it will happen, Preuss said.
“It makes people think the next time they’re sitting in a bar two weeks later, having an extra drink and planning to drive. They think, ‘Maybe this isn’t a good idea,’” Preuss said. “It’s an educational tool to make people think and make them aware that these things are going on.”
Small jurisdiction limits where the VCU Police can have a DUI checkpoint. The 700 block of West Main Street is chosen most often because it is spacious enough to ensure both officer and driver safety, Preuss said.
Visibility is also considered when choosing a checkpoint’s location because future prevention is a high priority, Preuss said.
There have been 82 DUI arrests made by the VCU Police so far this school year, compared to 81 at this point last school year, VCU Police liaison Mike Porter said. Because VCU is an open campus, many of the people arrested in DUI cases on campus are not students, Preuss said.
There is no set date for the next DUI checkpoint on campus, but Preuss said there will be more checkpoints this semester if the state grants VCU police the money.
Some of the grant money is also used to pay patrol officers overtime to work between 10 p.m. and 5 a.m., which are peak hours for DUI arrests, Preuss said.
For the friends of Carolina Perez, the message is simple: Take action or we’ll grieve again.
“Somebody else is going to die because of drunk driving. We know it’s going to happen, and yet we just sit complacent and wait,” Kazmi said. “Everyone just pretends it’s going to be someone else. But in reality, it could be you. It could be your mother; it could be your father, your brother, your best friend. It could be anyone.”
Kazmi said the efforts to combat drunken driving must be student-based and administration-supported – a community effort.
“If others can learn from (this) then we can prevent it from happening again,” Kazmi said. “VCU is a community. It’s a family. If we don’t look out for each other, then who else will?”
Good job on this article and continuing to bring awareness to this issue. The Wellness Resource Center is willing to provide “Bystander” training for any class or student group who wants to look at getting the skills to speak up and intervene on tough issues such as drunk driving. All of us need to be able to step up and speak up when an urgent situation arises such as preventing drunk driving. Prevention education and media can only do part of the job. After that it takes people who have the skills to intervene with their peers at a crucial moment. We are a community that is only as strong as it’s weakest link.