Researchers to aid DUI victims’ families through court, grieving process

The relatives of those killed by DUI drivers often brave the anguish — mourning, planning funerals and attending court hearings.

Now, state researchers will home in on Palm Beach County to study how to best help victims’ relatives cope with DUI deaths.

The U.S. Department of Justice recently awarded a nearly $580,000 grant, allowing the county and Florida State University to team up for a three-year project. The goal: to figure out how to guide families through the legal system while providing emotional and financial help. The project could become a template for the rest of the country.

Spearheading the effort will be the Palm Beach County Victim Services Office, which helps victims of violent crimes. “What this is seeking to do is address the gap that survivors experience in between the time of the crash and when the case goes to court, if ever,” said Nicole Bishop, the director for the county’s victim services.

More than 500 people died statewide in crashes that involved alcohol in 2015, the latest figures available, according to the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles.

DUI crashes are often thought as accidents instead of crimes, sometimes leaving DUI victims’ families and surviving victims unaware there are services available to them.

The study could help raise awareness and “develop a network of communication of services,” said George Pesta, director of FSU’s Center for Criminology and Public Policy Research.

There has been “a lot of advocating awareness of drunk driving and increasing penalties,” Pesta said. “But there’s been very little research into what we do for the survivors.”

After the Palm Beach County Victim Services Office applied for and won the federal grant, it reached out to FSU to be the research partner, Pesta said.

From the initiative, solutions could include: Grief counseling. Financial assistance. Helping victims plan funerals.

Training police on how to notify families of their loved one’s death.

Bishop said her team is working on gathering more data in Palm Beach County. The grant led to two new positions within the department — a DUI coordinator to oversee the project and a DUI advocate to come up with services for victims.

There will be some challenges for the team to navigate, such as determining who is eligible for the help.

Lengthy investigations and trials can present a gray area if a case isn’t officially deemed DUI-related.

A death thought to be DUI-related could also end up not being so, as was the case in July after a driver killed a bicyclist in Boca in 2014 and was acquitted of DUI charges.

“By the time you hit the charges being filed, it may be two, three or four months later,” Pesta said. “For those survivors, that’s when they need services the most.”

Other organizations involved with the initiative are the Palm Beach County Sheriff ’s Office, and the advocacy group Mothers Against Drunk Driving.