DRINKING AND DRIVING: ALCOHOL POLICY COALITION HOPES NEW `NOT A DROP' LAW WILL CUT TEEN DEATHS AND INJURIES.

A week ago, Dr. George J. Van Komen, chairman of the Alcohol Policy Coalition, was invited to ride along with the Highway Patrol for an evening. Little did he know that he would end up on the scene of a fatal traffic accident where alcohol had been a factor.

"You hear the statistics, you know the numbers, but to see that young man, that absolute waste of human life, really brought it all home."Each year, 76,000 teens die in alcohol-related traffic accidents. Someone is injured in an alcohol-related crash every minute. In this century, nearly 1.2 million Americans have lost their lives from alcohol related automobile accidents - that's more than all the deaths of Americans in all our wars from the Revolutionary War to the recent war in the Persian Gulf.

But it doesn't have to be that way, says Van Komen. This is a preventable circumstance. "We say `don't drink and drive.' But apparently we don't believe it. In 1990, there were 2 million DUI arrests. And studies show that only one in anywhere from 500 to 2,000 drunk drivers is actually arrested."

It is time, he says, that society puts forth the message that drinking and driving is just not acceptable.

To that end, the Alcohol Policy Coalition was formed in 1989 when a dozen concerned citizens got together to see what positive approaches could be taken to address the problem. That number has grown to 35 and now represents federal and state government agencies and groups as well as individuals. (The coalition is a non-profit group, funded by donations.)

One of its first success stories is the new "not a drop" law that went into effect April 27.

This law states that a person less than 21 years of age may not operate or be in actual physical control of a vehicle while there is any measurable or detectable alcohol in his body. For the first offense, there is a mandatory 90-day driver's license suspension; for subsequent offenses, the driver's license is revoked for a year. There is also a mandatory counseling program, which the young person must go through before he gets his license back.

The law is based on a similar law in Oregon, says Van Komen. After that law was passed, the number of teen deaths in alcohol-related crashes went from 124 to 79.

"We hope the same thing happens here. We also hope that not one teen is arrested under the new law - that the message will get out and they won't drink and drive."

The coalition is proposing a number of other changes in Utah's DUI laws:

1. Define .04 percent BAC (Blood Alcohol Content) as per se driving under the influence.