Plagued by patrol shortages, the four counties adjacent to Hillsborough recorded a surge of fatal, hit-and-run crashes in 1997, unequaled statewide.

Investigators link the crimes to alcohol use.

They say they lack manpower to keep drunks off the road.

``In Pasco County, most of the DUI arrests we make are crash-related,'' says Sgt. Don Young, who oversees traffic fatality investigations for the Florida Highway Patrol.

``We have very little time for preventative patrol anymore.''

Florida DUI arrests hit a decade low in 1997.

Law enforcement agencies credit changing attitudes toward drunk driving.

``Ten years ago, if a trooper went out on a Friday or Saturday night, it was like shooting ducks in a pond,'' says the Highway Patrol's chief spokesman, Maj. Ken Howes.

``Today, there are not as many out there.''

But crash supervisors also point to untold numbers of inebriated motorists free to roam because police don't have time to catch them.

From 1990 to 1997, DUI arrests plunged 37 percent in Pasco and 41 percent in Manatee, two counties of steady population growth.

Statewide, the average was 26 percent.

Pasco and Manatee share another poor distinction: the two highest rates of alcohol-related crash deaths among Florida's 20 most populated counties.

``I'm not sure there's the same enforcement on drunk driving there was two or three years ago by all agencies,'' Young says, reflecting on Pasco deaths.

In 1997, alcohol fueled half of Manatee and Pasco road deaths, a throwback to the 1980s. Polk's rate - 38 percent - wasn't much better.

Statewide, one-third of fatal crashes were alcohol-related.

``Unfortunately, we always seem to be cleaning up messes,'' says Capt. Larry Costanzo of the Florida Highway Patrol in Lakeland. ``The whole idea is to get out there pro-actively to prevent it from happening.''

Hillsborough agencies nailed a decade-high 4,120 drunk drivers in 1995 - but two years later, arrests fell to 3,206.

That year in Manatee, a county of nearly 250,000 people, authorities detained fewer than two drunk drivers a day.

How many could be caught?

David R. Brunner, a Manatee trooper with a knack for DUI arrests, single-handedly nabbed 115 last year.

That's one-sixth of the total take for all Manatee policing agencies in 1997.

``If I had seven troopers on my squad that got 100 a year, I still wouldn't feel comfortable,'' says FHP Sgt. Tom Przybylowicz.

``There are too many out there that get away and have wrecks, and we don't get them until after the fact.''

Some of the patrol's worst manpower shortages afflict Hillsborough, Pasco, Polk, Manatee and Pinellas counties, according to a Northwestern University Traffic Institute formula and an FHP trooper workload report.

It's a region where commuters often cross county lines.

One county's problem becomes another's pain.

Two nights a week, a lone state trooper patrols Polk County, an area larger than the state of Rhode Island. It happens four nights a week in Manatee.

Priorities bump other priorities.

Pedestrian Jane Doe didn't stay a priority for long. Killed near Interstate 4 and U.S. 27 in August 1997, she went unidentified for 18 months. In December, the FBI finally found her lost fingerprint card and told the FHP she was Karen Pleiades.

Three more months passed. The Polk investigator assigned to the case, swamped with fresh fatality investigations, didn't have time to search the nation for parents Bobby and Mary Williamson. They learned of her death from a newspaper reporter.

``It's kind of like standing in the middle of a river,'' says Tampa police Detective Mike Willingham. ``They pour on your desk. And if you don't move them off your desk, you drown.

``So you move them, and you hope the family feels this particular detective did everything within his power to have caught the bad guy.''

In Pasco, parents Wayne and Sheree Kettlety hired a private investigator, convinced the Florida Highway Patrol wasn't putting enough effort into solving their son Danial's hit-and-run death.

The Kettletys distributed 150,000 fliers, asking for leads. When people called the patrol, they didn't get return phone calls, Wayne Kettlety says. The Kettletys complained, only to learn about the manpower situation.

``They're understaffed all right,'' Wayne Kettlety says.

``What good does it do to have a community that pulls together and does what's right if the system doesn't follow up on it? Whether you have manpower or not. All you have to do is make a phone call.

``How busy can they be?''

Busy.

From 1990 to 1998, Florida vehicle registrations grew 17 percent while the Highway Patrol's staff grew 2 percent.

Investigator positions eroded from 248 to 222.

Pasco troopers, individually, have the second toughest workload of 67 Florida counties. Polk, Manatee and Pinellas troopers rank sixth, eighth and ninth, spokesman Howes says.

The toughest? Orange County.

Orange also reported a surge of hit and run deaths in 1997.

Nowhere did such a clustering of increases occur as in the Bay area.

``We had the worst run in '97 that I've ever seen, and I've been in Pasco County for 26 years,'' Young says.

Forty people died in hit and run crashes in Pasco, Manatee, Pinellas and Polk, a jump from 13 in 1996. Hillsborough hit-and-run deaths dropped slightly. Still, the Bay area accounted for one-fourth of the state's hit-and-run fatalities, while home to one-fifth of its population.

The Tampa area ranked second among large U.S. cities for high traffic fatality rates, The Road Information Program reported in March. With the same yardstick applied to surrounding counties, Pasco, Manatee and Polk fare as badly or worse.

Crash deaths increased in 1998, but hit-and-run numbers won't be available until later this year.

By nature, traffic statistics blip and dip.

But in 1997, the Bay area blipped while Florida dipped.

Officials can only guess why: Population density and pedestrians contributed to deaths in Pinellas. Growth overloaded the unincorporated regions of Pasco.

In September, Pasco voters rejected a tax initiative that would have put 220 more sheriff's deputies on the street over the next decade.

Currently, there are 140 Pasco deputies, compared to 130 in 1990.

``We were understaffed 10 years ago, and we haven't been catching up,'' says Kevin Doll of the Pasco County Sheriff's Office.

In the end, most guesses come down to manpower.

Consider Hillsborough.

By formula, Hillsborough needs 47 more state troopers, the second worst void in the state.

But its troopers ranked only 34th in workload.

That's because the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office - among the nation's largest - routinely handles fatal crash investigations outside the jurisdiction of the Tampa Police Department.

That eases the workload for troopers, otherwise responsible for anything outside a city.

``The job's getting done in Hillsborough County and some other counties only because the sheriff is helping us,'' says FHP spokesman Howes.

``The sheriff doesn't want one of his deputies waiting for an hour at the scene of a crash for a trooper when that deputy could go and work the crash.''

Each county's sheriff has that prerogative.

Orange County deputies don't investigate fatal crashes.

Likewise for Pasco.

The Highway Patrol investigates most fatal crashes in unincorporated Polk and Manatee, and many in Pinellas.

The Traffic Institute formula puts the optimum number of traffic troopers for the Bay area at 295. The five counties are about 120 troopers short of that.

By formula, Florida needs 549 more traffic troopers.

This year, the patrol asked for 119.

Gov. Jeb Bush recommended 31.

``They have to be aware,'' Young says of the Legislature. ``I know our agency puts in for it. I'm not sure what the problem is, but since I came to Pasco County, we have notoriously been short-handed.''

Filling the positions may be as tough as getting them.

Troopers start at $26,845.92 a year, or $516 a week. The patrol loses officers to higher-paying departments.

``We were hoping to get six out of this academy but they didn't pan out and we ended up with three,'' Young says.

``We still have four vacant positions and another trooper leaving shortly.

``The future manpower allocation looks pretty bleak for at least the next year or so.''