The Los Angeles Times from Los Angeles, California • Page 17

2004:02:14:22:23:10 A22 LOSANGELESTIMES The Nation By Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar Times Staff Writer WASHINGTON Sabina Urbina turned her that will never the loss of a son and two nephews to drunk drivers into action by founding a chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving in Las Cruces, N.M. AIDS educator Julio Olmos realized that alcohol abuse was acommon thread in his problems and that drunk-driving crashes were taking more lives than HIV, so he started an information campaign, using stories of people in his Durham, N.C., community and junkyard photos of their wrecked cars. Urbina and Olmos represent a new kind of advocacy that is bringing the national crusade against drunk driving to Latinos. The largest minority has been largely bypassed by mainstream prevention messages, researchers say, despite evidence that Latinos face a greater risk of becoming drunk-driving victims and offenders. population and our leadership have concentrated very much on other said Alejandro Garcia, deputy director of the National Latino Council on Alcohol and Tobacco Prevention.

is now when we are paying attention to Alcohol-related crashes kill about 17,400 people a year, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation. Progress in reducing that statistic has stalled lately, amid consensus that the easy gains have been made and further improvements will require new approaches. Data from California and other states show that Latinos account for a disproportionate share of both drivers arrested for driving under the influence, or DUI, and those involved in alcohol-related crashes. Public- safety experts are concerned that the problem may worsen as share of the population continues to increase.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has commissioned research to improve prevention strategies aimed at Latinos. you want to address the national rate, the best way to do it is to affect as many people as you said Jeff Michael, who heads impaired- driving program. Early indications from the research are that Latinos, in particular, respond to a message that emphasizes the risks to the family from drunk driving, rather than the effects on a job or health. not so much the individual risk of getting killed that with Latinos, said Maria Carmona, of the Maryland-based Pacific Institutefor Research and Evaluation, which is conducting the research for NHTSA. the risk of being injured and not being able to provide for the family what trying to Legal drinking ages in many Spanish-speaking countries are lower than in the United States.

Family gatherings are the usual setting for a first drink. the way people were said Urbina, the MADD activist from New Mexico. somebody gets married, there is beer. When a baby is born and the family celebrates, there is beer. When somebody baptizes a child, there is beer.

When you have a quinceanera there is beer. try to make people realize OK if you drink, so long as you stay at home and get behind the wheel of a Olmos, the North Carolina health educator, said one of his most powerful examples in- volvedan acquaintance, the father of a 4-year-old girl. The man, a building contractor, went drinking after work one day and lost control of his pickup truck on the way home. He hit a pole and suffered a disabling head injury. Before the accident, he had supported his family and was a star of weekend amateur soccer leagues.

Now, paralyzed at age 30, he is being cared for at home by his mother, who had to come from Mexico. His wife is working to support the family. His prognosis is poor. most important thing is to show how much an accident can cost, in physical and emotional said Olmos, who takes his message to church groups, high schools and neighborhood gatherings. With nearly 12 million Latino residents, the largest population of any state, California has been a priority for prevention efforts oriented toward Latinos.

The state is a focus for las an educational campaign begun in 2001 by MADD to encourage drinkers to turn their car keys over to adesignated driver. At the federal level, NHTSA has developed a Spanish-language version of its Drink You campaign for television and radio. Yet the data on drunk driving among Latinos remains incomplete, with gaps and contradictions in the statistical data. The most recent NHTSA- sponsored study linking traffic fatalities and ethnicity is based on data at least a decade old. It found that Mexican Americans, who account for more than of U.S.

Latinos, had the second- highest alcohol-related fatality rates among drivers, passengers, pedestrians and cyclists. Only Native Americans had a higher death rate. Other national studies by academic researchers, based on government surveys of drivers, paint a different picture. In these surveys, Latinos are less likely than whites to report having driven under the influence of alcohol within the previous 12 months, although they are more likely to report being arrested. These surveys also indicate that U.S.-born Latinos are more likely to drive under the influence than are immigrants.

Data from several states suggest greater involvement by Latinos in alcohol-related crashes, based on their percentage of the state population. In California, where Latinos make up of the population, they accounted for of the drunk drivers at fault in fatal DUI crashes in 2002, according to the California Highway Patrol. Latinos were of the drunk drivers at fault in all types of DUI crashes that year. They also accounted for of those arrested for DUI in 2001, the latest year for which statistics were available from the California Department of Motor Vehicles. The numbers were more striking in North Carolina.

There, Latinos account for of the population, but they represented of the drunk drivers involved in fatal crashes, according to 2002 statistics from the Highway Safety Research Center at the University of North Carolina. Latinos also accounted for of those charged with impaired driving in North Carolina from July 2002 through June 2003. Some worry that focusing prevention efforts on ethnicity could encourage racial profiling by police. people in the community argue that police practices are discriminatory and target said Raul Caetano, a professor at the University of Texas School of Public Health in Dallas and a leading researcher on Latinos and drunk driving. police say they are patrolling areas where they know there is a high For Urbina, working with MADD is a way to try to prevent other families from suffering the kind of loss she faced.

The tragedies began on New Day 1998, when two nephews accepted a ride from a driver who had been drinking. The driver went too fast on a curve and lost control, and the car rolled three times. Her nephews were ejected and killed. Three months later, her 18- year-old son, Sabino, was killed. A high school senior, he yet decided what he was going to do after graduation.

He enjoyed coaching baseball and fixing cars, his mother said. It was a Fridayevening, March recalled. Sabino was giving a friend a ride. He was making a left turn when his Ford Escort was struck on the side by a speeding van driven by a drunk driver. Sabino died at the scene.

The driver, a Latino, survived and was charged with driving under the influence. served 30 days in jail and paid a $750 said Urbina. I speak to community groups, I always stress the fact that he is still out somebody gets married, there is beer. When a baby is born and the family celebrates, there is beer. When somebody baptizes a child, there is beer.

When you have a quinceanera, there is beer. Itry to make people realize OK if you drink, so long as you stay at home and get behind the wheel of a Sabina Urbina, founder of a Mothers Against Drunk Driving chapter in Las Cruces, N.M. Photographs by J.R. Hernandez For The Times THAT WILL NEVER Sabina son died near Las Cruces, N.M., in 1998, when a drunk driver crashed a speeding van into his car. Just three months earlier, two of her nephews died in another alcohol-related crash.

Effort to Curb Drinking and Driving Finds a New Focus Advocates send a translated message to Latinos, who face greater risks. NEW KIND OF ADVOCACY: Sabina Urbina shares her story with others through Mothers Against Drunk Driving. DUI danger Latinos, who account for about one-third of population, represent a high share of those arrested for drunk driving as well as at fault in drunk-driving crashes. The most recent information available: DUI arrests, 2001 Fault in drunk-driving crashes, 2002 Sources: California Highway Patrol, California Dept. of Motor Vehicles Los Angeles Times Latino White Black Other White Latino Black Asian stated By John J.

Goldman Times Staff Writer NEW YORK Lutece, a landmark of French cuisine in the United States, served its last supper Saturday a special dinner seasoned with regrets then shut its front door and went out of business. For its final night, the restaurant, whichfor decades was the epitome of exquisite dining and decor but which fell on hard times in recent years and fought to meet expenses, was packed with patrons. Many came not only for such dishes as beet chartreuse with oyster cream, Dover sole souffle for two, sauteed foie gras with dark chocolate sauce and bitter orange marmalade but for large helpings of nostalgia. The midtown restaurant with an understated green awning was named for Lutetia, the Roman name for Paris. After it opened on Feb.

16, 1961, it quickly became so popular that people had to reserve months ahead of time. Chef Andre Soltner became one of the first culinarysuper- stars, emerging from the kitchen to quietly and graciously greet such guests as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, heads of state, U.N. ambassadors and Hollywood stars. At its zenith in the 1980s, Lutece was ranked by the Zagat Surveyas the best restaurant in America for six consecutive years. In 1994, telling customers he was fatigued, Soltner, who became sole owner in 1972, sold it to Ark Restaurants, which tried to update the menu.

In retrospect, officials of the company said in announcing closing, the attempt was a mistake. It alienated longtime customers. The company also blamed a marketwide decline in lunchtime expense account customers and the general economic malaise after the attack on the World Trade Center. Under new owners, two other chefs tried to fill shoes. But longtime patrons who liked the old menu drifted away.

Abranch of Lutece in Las Vegas will remain open, Ark said. The passing of Lutece is perhaps the most prominent example of a shift in the old culinary guard. La Cote Basque, an elegant whose cuisine won praise as did its realistic luminescent murals, has announced it will shut down in March. On the same day Lutece was closing its doors, Gage Tollner in Brooklyn did too. Gage Tollner, which had been in business since 1879, served American food in a historic dining room with distinctive antique gas lights; waiters wore uniforms with stripes signifying the long years of their employment.

At Lutece, some staff members struggled to contain their sorrow over the closing Saturday. Others voiced anger as they prepared for the final servings. should have been here in the past, not said a headwaiter, who like others interviewed inside Lutece, declined to give his name. is it going to be the maitre was asked as he piled napkins on tables. going to be a madhouse.

We are completely booked up. In the kitchen, lobster sauce simmered on a stove. are very busy. We have 250 people tonight. It is the last a supervising chef said.

want to make sure everything is going to go would appreciate this interview maybe a year ago. You know, when Lutece maybe was not, you know, in this he said, tears in his eyes. Associated Press NO RESERVATIONS: Amember of the Lutece staff at the door of the Manhattan landmark, which closed its door Saturday. Famed New York French Restaurant and Patrons Bid One Another Adieu Lutece, named the best for six consecutive years in the shuts down after a 43-year run..