Last year, 234 people lost their lives in crashes involving an impaired driver on Colorado roadways. Among them was Sen. Faith Winter, a prominent state lawmaker from Westminster, who had more than twice the legal limit of alcohol in her blood when the car she was driving slammed into a truck that had stopped to make way for another wreck on I-25 south of Denver.

Winter’s death last November — devastating to her family and her fellow members of the legislature at the Capitol — followed a struggle with alcohol use that previously had culminated in her formal admonishment by the Senate president for showing up intoxicated at a public meeting in 2024. It’s unclear if she had driven to that meeting under the influence, as well.

This past weekend, a newly elected member of the Aurora City Council was arrested by the city’s police on charges of driving under the influence, driving with excessive alcohol content, changing lanes when unsafe and making a left turn from the wrong lane. As The Gazette reported on Sunday, at-large council member Rob Andrews wound up spending the night on a detox hold at Aurora Municipal Detention Center and was released Sunday morning.

He issued a public statement the same day acknowledging, “…After sobriety testing, officers determined I was not fit to drive. I take full responsibility for my decision. I am deeply sorry — to my family, to the people I serve, and to everyone who expects better from me. I am grateful no one was hurt. …”

Indeed, it could have been worse. The reckless judgment that underlies drinking and driving has killed far too many in our state.

But the lapse in judgment seems even more pronounced when an elected official is involved. The public understandably wonders not only what the official could have been thinking but also whether he or she felt above the law.

In that light, it’s hard to say which is more alarming: that Andrews was arrested for allegedly drinking and driving so soon after Winter’s death — given its high-profile implications for other public officials — or that it came so soon after Andrews’ own election. 

Pending his formal adjudication on the charges against him, it’s reasonable to ask if, mere weeks into his tenure in office, he already had forgotten the example he is supposed to set. Not only for responsible behavior in general but especially when it comes to upholding the law.

Elected officials can pay a high price for abdicating that responsibility. 

In 2024, then-House Minority Leader Mike Lynch, of Wellington, stepped down from legislative leadership after it became public he was on probation for a 2022 drinking-and-driving arrest. Charges included driving 90 mph and reaching for a firearm after being instructed not to do so.

In April 2022, state Rep. Matt Gray of Broomfield, a former deputy district attorney, announced he would not seek reelection a week after he was arrested for driving under the influence — in front of his children’s elementary school, where he was going to pick them up. He refused field-sobriety and blood-alcohol tests and later got a year of probation after pleading guilty to one count of DUI.

All engaged parents, mindful of the alcohol-induced havoc on Colorado roads, teach their teens drinking and driving don’t mix. The last thing they need is public officials who flagrantly disregard that stern and wise warning.