Alexa Smith said she always has been concerned with drunken driving in East Lansing.
"As a driver and as a pedestrian, you need to be more careful around here." the interior design junior said. "It's college students - they're more rowdy."
Smith's concerns come on the heels of two alcohol-related accidents that occurred in the city last week, which police are continuing to investigate.
While two men were crossing the street at about 1:20 a.m. Friday near Albert Avenue and Bailey Street, a vehicle stuck them and continued driving.
One of the men in that accident, 22-year-old Matthew Wildrick from Jacksonville, Ill., was hospitalized with injuries and has since been released.
The driver in that incident, 21-year-old Anthony Ciotta III of Livonia, was apprehended by Meridian Township police in the parking lot of the Old Country Buffet, 2301 W. Grand River Ave. in Okemos, and arrested for drunken driving.
The following day, MSU freshman Cory Collings, 19, of Bad Axe was hospitalized after he was hit by a pickup truck while trying to cross Grand River Avenue near Stoddard Avenue at about 2 a.m. Saturday.
The driver of the vehicle, Haslett resident Michael Coe, 23, was arrested on alcohol-related charges.
East Lansing police Capt. Juli Liebler said pedestrian-vehicle accidents involving alcohol are not common in the city.
"We get a few accidents when the driver has been drinking, but very few pedestrian accidents," she said.
Chad Lewicki, an interdisciplinary studies in social science senior, said the recent accidents don't raise any concerns for him.
"I've been here for four years," Lewicki said. "Just because of two accidents, it's not going to change my perspective on walking anywhere."
Although police did not have the exact number of alcohol-related accidents in the city, the number of drunken driving arrests hit a 10-year high in 2003, East Lansing police Lt. Lance Langdon said.
Last year, police made 376 arrests, compared to 268 arrests in 2002.
"We have focused more on drunk driving," Langdon said, attributing the high numbers with more police enforcement, which he said has led to more arrests.
Ingham County Prosecutor Stuart Dunnings III said he is seeing drunken driving cases more often, and it is an offense that probably can't be stopped.
"It continues to be a persistent problem," he said. "We can diminish it, but I don't know if we'll ever eradicate it."
Although he couldn't pinpoint a specific age group that seems to commit the offense most often, Dunnings said drunken driving seems to be less prevalent in cities the same size as East Lansing that aren't home to a major university.
For drunken driving cases in East Lansing, Dunnings' office prosecutes cases on a person's second and third offense. Punishments range from one to five years in jail, he said.
Staff writer Lindsay VanHulle contributed to this report.
Sarah McEvilly can be reached at mcevilly@msu.edu.
