102
Beverage Media
November 2012
A Few Things To Consider
BY DUNCAN H. CAMERON
SPIRIT
SCOPE
Strike 5…
New York State is getting tougher
on hardcore DWI. Offenders who
repeatedly drive drunk or drugged will
risk losing their licenses permanently
for the first time in New York under
new Department of Motor Vehicles
regulations announced recently. I was
actually amazed to learn that until now,
New York State would keep renewing
licenses for people with many serious
violations on their records.
Drivers who have committed five or
more alcohol- or drug-related offenses
in a lifetime would now lose their li-
cense forever.
Authorities claim that State records
show that repeat offenders are drinking
and driving more now than in the
past. In 2010, 28% of alcohol-related
crashes that caused injuries in New York
involved someone with three or more
alcohol-related driving convictions.
That’s up six percentage points
from 2005.
“
In the past, some of these offenders
after repeated convictions were given
back their licenses and had an oppor-
tunity to drive again,” state police Su-
perintendent Joseph D’Amico said at
an Albany news conference. “With this
initiative the DMV is taking, they’ll be
revoking these licenses and the police
will be on the road to enforce it.”
It would be interesting to know what
percentage of people whose license has
been permanently revoked continue to
drive or move to another state and man-
age to get a new license. Identity theft
could be used for license fraud as well as
for credit card fraud. Although it stinks
of the feared “big brother,” I think we
are coming to the day when it will be
fairly easy to establish clearly who each
of us is in a unique and easily verified
way. That “national identity card” will
help the battle against credit card and
license fraud, all sorts of crime, terror-
ism and even election fraud. I don’t
think there is a constitutional right to
lie about who you are.
In Training?…
The conductors, mechanics and en-
gineers who operate Amtrak’s trains
have been testing positive for drugs
and alcohol more and more frequent-
ly over the last six years. Should we
be concerned?
Drug and alcohol use by Amtrak
operating employees in safety-sensitive
positions far exceeds the national aver-
age for the railroad industry, Amtrak’s
inspector general said in a report warn-
ing of serious safety risks.
Amtrak’s mechanics and signal oper-
ators had the highest rate in 2011, test-
ing positive for drugs four times as often
as those working for other railroads.
Although Amtrak also tests for alcohol,
the larger problem in recent years has
been with drugs—specifically cocaine
and marijuana.
Seventeen workers in 2011 failed
alcohol or drug tests intended to root
out employees who are high or drunk
on the job. But federal guidelines only
require that Amtrak randomly test one-
quarter of operations employees every
year. Just one in ten must be tested
for alcohol. Not quite as strict as the
road blocks you and I might face on a
holiday weekend.
Amtrak said it agreed with the
watchdog’s recommendations, includ-
ing that Amtrak should test a higher
portion of its workers and expand its
program for physical observation. The
railroad plans to spend $1.5 million this
year on its drug and alcohol program,
and will boost its random drug test rate
from 33% to 50%.
Screw Cork?
A wine-closures study is underway that
could have huge ramifications for the
global wine industry. Are corks and
screwcaps equally effective as wines
age? If two bottles of the same wine
taste differently, could that be because
of the type of closure that’s used?
Does one type of closure deliver more
consistent results?
Those are among the questions be-
ing probed by the Bottle Aging–Closure
and Variability Study, which is being
conducted by the University of Cali-
fornia, Davis, in partnership with the
PlumpJack Group.
More than 600 bottles of Sauvignon
Blanc that use cork, screwcaps or syn-
thetic corks are being analyzed.
A variety of scientific tools will be
used to examine the quality of each seal
and the chemical attributes of the wine
in each bottle. Then, a panel of experts
will use their senses of taste and smell to
try to determine the differences between
the various wines. Results are expected
next year.
