DWI arrests of underage drinkers on the rise on Long Island

When Briyenna Souter, of East Meadow, was 19 years old, she tried alcohol for the first time at a family friend’s wedding.

She drank excessively, threw up repeatedly, blacked out and ended up leaving the party early.

The experience, which might have turned some minors off to alcohol, only made Souter want to drink more as she knew she could get away with it.

For the next nine years, Souter, who said alcoholism runs in her family, drank regularly and heavily, taking a physical and emotional toll on her young life.

Rifts grew in Souter’s family as she blamed others for missing booze. Her grades in college and graduate school began to suffer. And she engaged in risky and dangerous behavior, including drinking and driving.

Eventually Souter decided that enough was enough.

"I didn't want to go back to my old lifestyle," said Souter, 30, who now works as an outreach coordinator with THRIVE, an addiction treatment center in New Cassel that helped turn her life around. "I didn't want to drink. I didn't want to party. I didn't even want to be associated with my friends at that point, because I knew that everybody engaged in terrible behavior."

In recent weeks, a renewed spotlight has shined on underage drinking after Matthew Smith, 20, of Hauppauge, was charged with crashing his 2017 Chevrolet Silverado pickup truck while heavily intoxicated into an Alfa Romeo SUV driven by off-duty Nassau County Police Officer Patricia Espinosa on Route 347 in Lake Grove. Espinosa, 42, a nine-year veteran of the department, and the mother of a 2-year-old girl, was pronounced dead at Stony Brook University Hospital on Jan. 31.

'Age-old' problem

Underage drinking, whether on Long Island or across the country, is far from a new concern, with teens and young adults constantly on the lookout for new ways to obtain alcohol before they turn 21.

But while experts contend progress has been made on some fronts, largely due to education, prevention and enforcement, recent data on Long Island indicates the problem is on the rise.

Last year, 78 motorists age 16-20 were arrested for driving while under the influence of drugs or alcohol in Suffolk County, a 110% increase from 2023, when 37 underage drivers faced the same charges, according to police department data.

"We take a zero-tolerance approach to drivers under the influence, especially those under 21," Suffolk County Police Commissioner Kevin Catalina said in a statement. "With increased Highway Patrol presence, SAFE-T enforcement, sobriety checkpoints, and targeted patrols during peak times, we focus on removing impaired drivers from Suffolk County roadways to prevent crashes. We urge anyone who has consumed alcohol — especially those under the legal drinking age — not to drive."

Nassau County arrested 26 underage motorists for DWI in 2025, up 13% from the 23 arrests one year earlier, department figures show.

Both counties have also reported recent year-to-year increases in arrests for violations of the state's social host law, which penalizes adults for letting underage individuals in their care drink alcohol, data indicates.

Nassau, meanwhile has also tracked increases in the number of citations issued to minors for underage drinking, including in public places, figures show.

Jeffrey Reynolds, president and chief executive of the Family & Children’s Association, a Garden City-based treatment center, said alcohol still kills more people nationwide than fentanyl,  the potent synthetic opioid responsible for thousands of fatalities on Long Island.

"The good news is that young adults are more mindful about alcohol use, especially since research has better connected the dots between booze and several cancers," Reynolds said. "Despite some progress, we are seeing young people who are struggling with depression and anxiety turning to alcohol, along with other drugs like cannabis, to self-medicate away their mental-health conditions. It’s an age-old dynamic that can only be addressed by ensuring that mental-health care is accessible and affordable for families."

Adam Birkenstock, director of programming at the Long Island Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence in Westbury, said for years the focus locally has centered on heroin and opioid abuse while underage drinking slipped under the radar.

But Birkenstock said the growth of social media — and the incredible expansion of online sites offering minors the sale of scannable but fake driver's licenses — has dramatically increased the availability of alcohol to individuals under the age of 21.

"The earlier somebody starts to drink, the more likely they are to develop a serious addiction," he said. "Even before the age of 21, the kinds of risks that kids are exposed to on Long Island are not fully unique. ... For example, 60% of drownings generally involve alcohol. Even kids walking home may stumble and hurt themselves, or worse, stumble into the road if they're drunk."

Deadly crash

To some experts, Espinosa's death epitomizes the dangers associated with underage drinking, particularly among those who get behind the wheel after consuming alcohol.

On the night of the Jan. 31 crash, authorities said Smith had been drinking heavily at the James Joyce Bar in Patchogue, where patrons urged him not to get behind the wheel.

Instead, Smith and a friend, John Andali, who suffered spinal and pelvic fractures in the crash, went across the street to another bar and restaurant, Lindo Mexico, to continue drinking. They then drove to Jake's 58 Casino Hotel in Islandia but it was closed.

Smith, on his way to driving Andali home, blew past stop signs and red lights, weaved in and out of traffic and drove as fast as 125 mph before crashing into Espinosa’s SUV as the officer was on her way to work, prosecutors said.

Espinosa’s car overturned and she was found hanging upside down by her seat belt, authorities said. Her husband, Nassau Police Officer Francisco Malaga, stopped at the crash scene on his way to work, only to learn that his wife was involved in the crash.

Smith's blood alcohol content registered at 0.20% about 40 minutes after the crash — 2½ times the legal limit of 0.08%, prosecutors said.

Earlier this month, Smith pleaded not guilty to a 19-count upgraded indictment that included charges of aggravated vehicular homicide and aggravated vehicular assault. He faces up to 25 years in prison if convicted of the top count.

Anthony LaPinta, of Hauppauge, Smith’s defense attorney, who previously described the case as "very difficult and emotional," did not respond to requests for comment.

It is unclear how Smith, who was two months shy of this 21st birthday at the time of the crash, obtained alcohol on the night of the crash. The James Joyce and Lindo Mexico did not respond to requests for comment from Newsday.

Both facilities still have active liquor licenses with the state, records show.

Newsday requested, but did not receive, data from the state Liquor Authority on the number of Long Island bars or restaurants issued citations or shuttered in recent years for serving alcohol to minors.

One of the few publicly known cases of the Liquor Authority shutting a Long Island bar for serving alcohol to minors occurred in November when officials suspended the license of Celtic Crossing Tavern in Kings Park.

The move came after inspectors discovered 223 patrons inside the overcrowded bar, exceeding by more than four times the allowed occupancy of 49, officials said. Many of the patrons were underage and drinking alcohol, the Liquor Authority said.

The owner of the bar blamed the incident on the bar's faulty ID scanner.

Teens starting younger

Data from the Institute for Traffic Safety Management & Research in Albany shows that 49 Long Island motorists — 32 in Suffolk and 17 in Nassau — between the ages of 16 and 20 were involved in motor vehicle crashes in 2024 involving alcohol.

Preliminary data for 2025 shows those figures dipped to 35 alcohol-related crashes among young drivers — 22 in Suffolk and 13 in Nassau.

Meanwhile, data collected by the state's Office of Addiction Services and Supports [OASIS] show that Long Island teens are starting to drink as early as middle school.

For example, 12% of Suffolk teens said they first tried alcohol in seventh grade while that figure was 11% in Nassau County, according to the 2023 report. In total, nearly 4 out of 5 Long Island teens surveyed by the state said they'd already experimented with alcohol by the time they graduated high school.

In fact, state data shows that about 13% of Long Island 10th graders said they'd already been drunk.

In Suffolk, that number grew to nearly 25% by 11th grade and 35% in 12th grade — both higher than the state averages of 22% and 24% respectively, figures show. Farther west in Nassau, about 16% of 11th graders and 27% of 12th graders said they'd been drunk.

Binge drinking, defined as drinking more than five alcoholic beverages at one time, was also considerably higher among teens in Suffolk, data indicates. More than 33% of Suffolk 12th graders said they'd engaged in binge drinking in the previous 30 days, compared to just under 25% in Nassau, the report shows.

Long Island teens said they most often get alcohol at a party, from friends or a parent, guardian or other adult, with or without their permission, the data shows. About 20% of Long Island teens said they typically get their alcohol from a bar, restaurant, store or gas station.

"Alcohol remains the drug of choice for youth, not unlike most other areas," said Sharon Harris, executive director of Substance Abuse Free Environment or SAFE, which works to reduce drug and alcohol use in Glen Cove. 

'You're not alone'

New York State, meanwhile, tracks above the nationwide average among the percentage of minors age 12 to 20 who've either tried alcohol in the past month or engaged in binge drinking during that period, according to federal statistics.

More than 17% of minors age 12 to 20 statewide said they'd tried alcohol in the previous month — the nationwide rate is 14% — while just under 10% said they'd engaged in recent binge drinking, according to a 2024 report from the Interagency Coordinating Committee on the Prevention of Underage Drinking. The national average among minors binge drinking is just over 8%, the data shows.

"Young people who drink alcohol are more likely to engage in risky behaviors that can lead to injuries and other health conditions," state Health Department spokeswoman Marissa Crary said. "Underage drinking is also associated with negative impacts on academic performance, mental health and overall well-being."

Nationally, there's been a significant decline in underage binge drinking over more than three decades, according to George Koob, director of National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.

For example, in 1991, about 65% of 12th graders nationwide said they'd engaged in binge drinking compared with 33% in 2024, Koob said.

"There are a lot of things that are probably contributing to it. A lot of knowledge is known now about underage drinking and the younger generation, particularly Gen Z, is particularly very much interested in a healthier lifestyle," Koob told Newsday in an interview. "It's also possible that what we've been doing in prevention in high schools and middle schools has actually been effective."

For Souter, change did not come easy but it did hold. In August, she will have been sober for three years.

Souter's life, she said, is now dedicated to ensuring that others who went down her dark path understand there is help available.

"My message is 'you're not alone and you're not the only one going through it,' " she said. "We want to create that safe space for those that are entering sobriety, because once people get sober, it's a weird way of life. And we want to make them feel like they're not alone. Because at the end of the day, their life matters. They may not seem like it at the time, but they truly do matter."

Newsday's Anastasia Valeeva contributed to this story.