“Get MADD all over again”

MADD blames success as its downfall. Now that it has brought to fruition 2,300 alcohol-related accident laws across the country, it seems that perhaps their advocacy is being treated as mundane news. MADD's new slogan, "Get MADD all over again," (2002 MADD Impaired Driving Summitt (pdf download)) seeks to revitalize interest in their organization.

Those who suffer the loss of their loved ones from drunk driving accidents find drunk driving laws around the country-as well as how they are administered-to be much too flexible, especially on repeat drunk drivers.

Naturally, citizens view the issue from different perspectives. Howard Neumann, a prosecutor from Greensboro, North Carolina, believes that a drunk driver is not unlike a man randomly firing a loaded gun from the side of the road. Either way he is dangerous and irresponsible, and should be punished accordingly. Debbie Smith would agree: she lost her young daughter after an intoxicated truck-driver ran a red light and hit her car. His sentence amounted to 18 days, the same number of years that Smith's daughter was alive.

Joel Oakley, a criminal defense attorney from Greensboro, takes a much more lenient position on the subject. Oakley says that people who are good can sometimes do bad. He also argues that despite that a person may completely have their faculties to drive, their breathalyzer measurement may be just barely under the legal level. He believes that MADD has played a significant role in harshly condemning defendants.

“okay to drive”

The ultimate enemy of police, MADD, and other anti-drunk driving groups lies in the mentality of people who think they are "okay to drive" after a few drinks. Highly noticeable checkpoints to monitor driver sobriety can help in deterring drivers from operating a vehicle under the influence. Word of mouth spreads the message that the police force is serious, and ultimately members of the community support each other in avoiding drunk driving.

July 1, 2004

April 12, 2004

A study by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank finds that traffic fatalities, including those caused by alcohol, are a serious world health problem that is often overlooked, the Washington Post reported April 7.

One in every 50 deaths worldwide is associated with road accidents, the study found, and traffic crashes are second only to childhood infections and AIDS as a killer of people between the ages of 5 and 30.

Each year, 1.2 million drivers, passengers, cyclists, and pedestrians are killed in traffic crashes. By 2020, traffic deaths are expected to increase by 80 percent as hundreds of millions of cars are added to the roads.

"It is already huge, but if nothing happens it is expected to rise," said Etienne Krug, director of WHO's department of injuries and violence prevention.

Among the recommendations in the 217-page report are measures for developing countries, such as India, China, and southeast Asia. They include stricter enforcement of drunk-driving laws, better road designs, increased use of seatbelts, and improved design and inspection of vehicles.

This article is published by Join Together - a national resource for communities working to reduce substance abuse and gunviolence based at the Boston University School of Public Health

DID YOU KNOW...
1,127,132 prisoners were under the jurisdiction of correctional authorities of the 50 States and the District of Columbia (together holding 1,026,882) and of the Federal Government (100,250).

WERE YOU AWARE...
over the 12 preceding months, the Nation's prison population grew 72,059 prisoners--an increase of 6.8 percent since year end 1994.

STATISTICS SHOW...
State prison systems were operating between 14 percent and 25 percent over their reported capacity; the Federal system, 26 percent over the reported capacity.

FINDINGS INDICATE...
the Nation's local jails held or supervised an estimated 541,913 persons. Of that total, 34,869 were in community supervision programs such as electronic monitoring, house detention, and day reporting.

THE FACTS ARE...
an estimated 7,888 juveniles (under age 18) were held in local jails; an increase of 17 percent from 12 months before. Nearly a quarter were tried or awaiting trial as adults.

To obtain a copy of BJS' new release "Prison and Jail Inmates, 1995," (NCJ 161132), please refer to "Ordering Directions" at the end of JUSTINFO or point your Web browser to: <http://www.ncjrs.org>.

Country	Deaths/100k Vehicles (1998)
S. Korea	80.33
Turkey	76.75
Poland	55.71
Portugal	35.02
France	30.24
Denmark	21.44
USA	19.97
Iceland	16.87
Italy	16.71
Canada	16.65
Germany	15.71
UK	12.73
Sweden	11.81

Source: German Federal Highway Research Institute

Highway-safety experts say myriad factors could have contributed to the first nationwide increase in drunken-driving deaths in a decade, including public complacency, an increase in the number of young drivers and higher speed limits. The 1995 toll of 17,274 alcohol-related traffic deaths was a 4 percent increase over 1994 figures, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Traffic deaths also increased last year, to 41,798 from 40,716 in 1994. Drunken-driving deaths had been steadily decreasing since 1986.

SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS

Chicago, IL - A recent report identified the 15 most dangerous states based on alcohol-related deaths. The report was published by End Needless Death on Our Roadways (END), a group of doctors and medical professionals dedicated to using new strategies to lessen dangerous driving.

They announced the "Fatal Fifteen"-states in which 41% or more of traffic-related casualties are caused by alcohol-related incidents. The "Fatal Fifteen" in rank order are Washington D.C., Hawaii, Rhode Island, Montana, Delaware, Alaska, North Dakota, Washington, Wisconsin, Texas, Connecticut, South Dakota, Illinois, South Carolina and Arizona.

The report reveals that ten states of the "Fatal Fifteen" have made the list ten years straight. Dr. Andrea Barthwell, Co-Chairperson of END and former Deputy Director for Demand Reduction the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy states, "We urge leaders in these states and around the country to dedicate themselves to exploring new and innovative strategies for addressing impaired and other dangerous driving behaviors."

The report also stresses the need for alcohol-related accident deaths to decrease, especially around the time of the holidays. Barthwell explains, "While the holiday season is a time for excitement, celebration and family, it is also a time of impaired driving and senseless death and injury."

Victims numbering 17,000 were killed in the country last year and 4,300 of those deaths occurred in the "Fatal Fifteen" states.

Stricter drunk driving laws and a more public support has lowered the number of drunk driving deaths, however in the last few years the death rate has plateaued, and END finds these rates to be unacceptable.

The report proposes solutions via the medical profession in particular. Outreach, education programs, and interventions could inform patients with alcohol problems of the negative consequences of their alcohol consumption. Further usage of interlock systems, which require impaired drivers to measure their blood alcohol level, could also address the problem. END also suggests that states consider implementing initiatives and strategies that have proven effective in other states.

View the full "Fatal Fifteen" release from END (pdf download).

November 30, 2006

National Survey of Drinking and Driving
Attitudes and Behaviors: 1999

Submitted to:

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
400 7th Street, SW
Room #6240
Washington, D.C. 20590
Draft #2 – December 2000

Submitted by:

THE GALLUP ORGANIZATION
901 F Street
N.W. Washington DC, 20004
PRINCETON

Complete Survey (PDF Download)

Executive Summary

Background

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA) mission is to save lives, prevent injuries, and reduce traffic-related health care and other economic costs. The goal is to meet the U.S. Secretary of Transportation’s objective of reducing alcoholrelated fatalities to 11,000 by the year 2005. Slight changes in the survey design and methodology in 1999 limit direct comparisons in some areas to the data collected in the previous administrations.

In order to plan and evaluate programs intended to reduce alcohol-impaired driving, NHTSA needs to periodically update its knowledge and understanding of the public’s attitudes and behaviors with respect to drinking and driving. NHTSA began measuring the driving age public’s attitudes and behaviors regarding drinking and driving in 1991.

This study represents the fifth of these biennial surveys designed to track the effectiveness of current programs and to identify areas in need of attention.Telephone interviews were conducted with a nationally representative sample of 5,733 persons of driving age (age 16 or older) in the United States between October 12 and December 12, 1999. Findings from the current survey are presented first. Then, comparisons with prior surveys are made.

Slight changes in the survey design and methodology in 1999 limit the number of direct comparisons that can be made to the previous NHTSA drinking and driving administrations.

Key Findings

Drinking and Driving Behavior

About 21% of the driving age public have driven a motor vehicle within two hours of consuming alcoholic beverages in the past year. These persons are referred to as “drinker-drivers†throughout this report.

Males are more than twice as likely to have driven within two hours of drinking as are females (31% compared to 13%).

Adults age 21 to 45 are the most likely to be drinker-drivers, with 37% of males and 18% of females driving within two hours of alcohol consumption.

On average, drinker-drivers consume 2.7 drinks prior to driving. Drinker-drivers under age 21 consume an average of 6.3 drinks prior to driving.

Drinker-drivers made between an estimated 840 million and 1.1 billion driving trips within two hours of consuming alcohol in the previous year. Those age 21 to 29 make a disproportionately high number of drinking-driving trips (21% of trips while they are 16% of the driving age population).

Drinker-drivers operate a motor vehicle with an average blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .03, which is below the legal limit for those age 21 or older; however, about 5% of drinker-drivers are estimated to have a BAC of .08 or higher. While those age16-20 make only about 1% of all drinking-driving trips, they do so at a BAC level three times that of legal age drinkers. Which is about .10 BAC.

About one in ten (11%) persons age 16 or older has ridden with a driver they thought might have consumed too much alcohol to drive safely in the past year. This number rises to about two in ten among those age 21 to 29, and to one in four among those age 16 to 20 (23%). Of those who rode with unsafe persons, four in ten riders decided that their drivers were unsafe before they were riding in the vehicle, but still rode with them.

Attitudes About Drinking and Driving

The driving age public sees drinking and driving as a serious problem that needs to be dealt with. Virtually all (97%) see drinking and driving by others as a threat to their own personal safety and that of their family, and nearly three-quarter (73%) feel reducing drinking and driving is extremely important in terms of where tax dollars should be spent.

Large proportions of those age 16 and older are supportive of “zero toleranceâ€1 for drinking and driving. Nearly seven in ten (68%) agree that people should not be allowed to drive if they have had any alcohol at all. Non drinker-drivers (76%) are more supportive of this belief than are drinker-drivers (33%).1

A majority (63%) of persons of driving age believes that they, themselves, should not drive after consuming more than two alcoholic beverages. In contrast, male drinkerdrivers under age 30 feel that they can safely drive after consuming about four drinks within two hours. An average 170-pound male would still be below the legal limit2 (either .08 or .10) after four drinks.

Prevention and Intervention of Drinking and Driving

Half of drivers 16 or older who consume alcoholic beverages, report at least one occasion where they refrained from driving when they thought they may have been impaired. Most of these persons rode with another driver instead.

Virtually all (98%) of those 16 and older feel that they should prevent someone they know from driving if they are impaired. Thirty-two percent (32%) of persons of driving age have been with a friend who may have had too much to drink to drive safely. Most of these (82%) tried to stop the friend from driving. Intervention was successful about 80% of the time.

Three in ten (31%) of those 16 or older have ridden with a designated driver in the past year, with those under age 30 most likely to have done so. Four in ten drivers have acted as a designated driver in the past year. Designated drivers were reported to have consumed less than one-half of one alcoholic drink, on average, prior to driving. 1 In this report ‘zero tolerance’ refers to no driving after drinking by anyone, of any age. All states have ‘zero tolerance’ laws which refer specifically to drivers under 21. 2 As of November 2000, 19 states, D.C. and Puerto Rico have .08 per se laws. 30 states have .10 per se laws.

Enforcement

About 1% of the driving age public report being arrested for impaired driving in the past 2 years. Males under age 30 were most likely to have been arrested. This is consistent with the higher average calculated BAC levels of young drinker-drivers.

Six of ten (62%) believe that a conviction is very likely or certain if they were arrested for a drinking-driving violation, while one in seven (15%) feel that a conviction would be unlikely.

The driving age public generally feels that an impaired driver is more likely to have a crash than to be stopped by police. On average, the public feels that about 43% will get in a crash while the police will stop about 33%.

About 64% feel that current drinking and driving laws and penalties are effective at reducing drinking and driving. Yet, three of four (73%) persons age 16 or older feel that drinking driving penalties should be more severe.

One in three (34%) persons of driving age have seen a sobriety checkpoint in the past year. About 19% have been through such a checkpoint themselves. A majority (64%) feel that sobriety checkpoints should be used more frequently.

Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) Levels

Four of five (80%) persons of driving age have heard of blood alcohol concentration (BAC) levels, but fewer than three in ten (27%) can correctly identify the legal BAC limit for their state.

More than two-thirds (68%) of driving age residents who have heard of BAC levels support the use of a .08 BAC legal limit in their state. More than eight of ten (86%) of those who currently reside in .08 states believe that the limit should remain at .08 or be made stricter, while 49% of those in .10 states feel their state should lower the limit to .08. Six in ten feel that all or most drivers would be dangerous at the BAC limit in their state.

Support for .08 is strongest among those who do not drink and drive, with 70% feeling the limit should be .08 or stricter (lower). While support is not as strong among those who drink and drive, 36% of this group also support a BAC limit .08 or stricter.

Crash Experience

Nearly two in ten (17%) persons of driving age were involved in a motor vehicle crash as a driver in the past two years. Alcohol was involved in about 2% of reported crashes.

Drivers under age 21 were more likely to be involved in a crash both as a driver and a passenger than were other drivers.

Perceived Effectiveness of Strategies to Reduce Drunk Driving

The general driving age population feel that the following would be the most effective strategies to reduce impaired driving providing alternative means of transportation (to self driving) for impaired drivers (63% very effective making bars and liquor stores more legally responsible for selling to minors/drunk patrons 55%); and increasing law enforcement efforts to arrest drunk drivers (53%). Making alcohol harder to buy (by liming sales outlets), increasing the cost through increased taxes and limiting alcohol advertising are felt to be much less effective strategies.

Complete Survey (PDF Download)

By BRIAN WINGFIELD - New York Times

Published: January 15, 2005

WASHINGTON, Jan. 14 - The government is falling short of its longstanding goal for cutting the nation's alcohol-related traffic deaths, and traffic fatalities involving drinking remain stubbornly stable at about 17,000 a year, according to transportation safety officials and private groups.

Meeting the target, they say, might save as many as 1,700 lives a year.

Federal and state safety officials spoke of meeting the lower target by the end of 2004, and although the final data have not been assembled, they now say the efforts will probably fall short.

"To be intellectually honest with you, I don't think we're going to make it," Dr. Jeffrey W. Runge, the administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said Thursday in an interview.

In 2001, in an effort to focus on a single nationwide goal, the agency aimed to reduce alcohol-related traffic deaths to a rate of 0.53 per 100 million miles traveled by all vehicles by the end of 2004.

In 2003, the most recent year for which comprehensive statistics are available, the rate was 0.59. While the figure has been going down, to reach the target it would have had to plummet by an additional 10 percent last year, much faster than in previous years.

In 2003, there were 17,013 deaths in alcohol-related traffic accidents, the fewest since 1999.

Throughout the 1980's and early 1990's, alcohol-related traffic fatality rates did drop steadily as the government and many private organizations, like Mothers Against Drunk Driving, waged highly publicized campaigns to curb drinking and driving and states tightened laws against drinking and driving.

In recent years, the absolute number of alcohol-related traffic deaths has hit a plateau, just over 17,000 a year, and officials said it had been hard to keep the issue in the public eye. Wendy Hamilton, the national president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, said that "people think the problem's been solved."

Earlier this week, Mothers Against Drunk Driving held a news conference to call for the greater use of "high-visibility law enforcement," like sobriety checkpoints. In particular, the organization would like to see 10 states - Idaho, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Oregon, Rhode Island, Texas, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming - change their laws to allow such checkpoints.

Barbara Harsha, executive director of the Governors Highway Safety Association, a nonprofit organization that represents states' highway safety concerns, said: "States are cutting back on law enforcement right now, they're diverting law enforcement to homeland security, and law enforcement officers are retiring. Resources are stretched thin."

Dr. Runge, of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said that in the short term, highly visible enforcement efforts were the best way to remind people that drunken driving was still an issue.

He said some states with high alcohol-related traffic fatality rates had not done much with the federal government to reduce deaths. But he listed 13 states with severe impaired-driving problems that appeared willing to improve: Alaska, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and West Virginia.

"If we can get those states to the national average, we'll be 80 percent of the way to meeting our goal," Dr. Runge said.

Sunday, January 4, 2004

By Allison Steele

Monitor Staff

In 1982, 111 people were killed in drunk-driving deaths on New Hampshire roads. In 2002: just 51.

Drunk-driving deaths on New Hampshire roads have decreased dramatically in the last 20 years, a decline attributed to a combination of public awareness and tough new laws.

In 1982, 111 people were killed in alcohol-related accidents in New Hampshire. In 1992, that figure had dropped to just 40, an all-time low. In 2002, it was 51.

The federal government compares drunk driving fatalities to the total number of highway miles driven each year. Measured that way, New Hampshire's rate has declined 74 percent over 20 years.

Most of the rest of the country has seen similar declines, a recent study by the federal Department of Transportation shows. But nationwide, the number of drunk-driving deaths has begun creeping upward again in the past three years.

Experts see the numbers as evidence that some drivers may be growing inured to the warnings of the danger of impaired driving.

"A lot of people thought this problem was solved a long time ago," said Kathryn Henry, spokeswoman for the national Highway Traffic Safety Administration. "We saw tremendous progress in the '80s and '90s. And now it's flattened out."

A New World

For New Hampshire police officers, the dramatic decline over the past two decades has meant significant changes in their work.

In Henniker, for example, New Year's Eve 1989 was one busy night for the police department. That was the year the department began 24-hour coverage; until then, officers had stopped work at 1 a.m. The additional patrols pulled in dozens of drunk-driving arrests that year, said Chief Tim Russell, and similar numbers in the years that followed.

But by the mid-1990s, driving while intoxicated arrests were dropping off. Now, New Year's Eve and other traditionally driver-risky holidays are among the department's quietest nights. This year was no different: no major accidents, no drunk-driving fatalities.

"We see less (DWIs) on those nights because they know we're out in force," Russell said. "They carpool; they designate a driver. If people would practice the same alternative driving plans year round as they do on New Year's, we wouldn't have nearly so much of a problem."

New Hampshire law now takes drunk driving fairly seriously: a mandatory 90-day license revocation for a first offense, and a Class B felony conviction for a third. In 1994, the state lowered the level of blood alcohol required to be considered drunk from 0.10 to 0.08. A law that took effect Thursday requires all first-time drunken drivers to complete an impaired driver intervention program.

And state lawmakers have proposed laws to further criminalize drunk driving. A bill sponsored by state Reps. Richard Morris and David Welch would increase jail time for second-time offenders and make a first-time offense a misdemeanor instead of a violation.

Welch said he hoped the bill would also emphasize the treatment of alcohol problems. Since drunk driving is often an indication of a serious drinking problem, he said stiffer penalties could help force people into treatment programs.

"We're hoping if we make punishments a little tougher, the idea will be that it could get some people into treatment sooner," he said. "My feeling has always been that a first offender ought to have jail time. I'm a very strong proponent of getting the message out there that if you drink and drive, you're going to go to jail."

'A jetliner every two days'

Across the country, more than 17,000 people died in alcohol-related crashes in 2002, said Henry, about 41 percent of all traffic fatalities. Large as that number may be, in 1982 the statistics were far more grim: more than 26,000 people.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving was born in the early 1980s to target the problem, and groups like DARE started devoting more attention to drunk driving. Public awareness campaigns throughout the 1980s and '90s encouraged partygoers to call cabs, stay overnight or use designated drivers, and the country's rate of alcohol-related driving deaths decreased steadily for almost two decades.

But now, Henry said, the "don't drink and drive" campaigns that were so successful in years past have become part of the national backdrop. The country's youngest generation of drivers, the population most at risk for drunk-driving deaths, pays less attention to the rhetoric than did teenagers and young adults in years past. And each year, a new generation of drivers turns 21.

"We lose enough people to fill the equivalent of a jetliner every two days to impaired driving," Henry said. "If that happened, if planes were falling out of the sky, this would be a huge issue on the front page of every newspaper. But this is such an insidious problem. It happens in remote places, every day, every 32 minutes."

Not only are people more aware now of the dangers of driving while impaired, cars are safer and laws in many states are stricter than they were in 1982. However, Henry said, there remain dramatic inconsistencies nationwide about how to deal with drunk-driving offenders. While some states have adopted laws aimed at cracking down on drunk driving, offenders in other states are often not prosecuted fully and get off with relatively light punishments. Though the legal intoxication limit has been designated as a blood alcohol level of 0.08 in most states, a handful of states have left it at 0.10.

As states have lowered the legal blood alcohol level, the rate of drunk-driving deaths often drop immediately. Drunk-driving deaths were increasing in Rhode Island, with the state seeing a 30 percent increase in fatalities over the past three years. In 2000 the legal blood alcohol limit was changed to 0.08, and in the past year the deaths have dropped by 7 percent. Colorado, one of the last states to maintain a 0.10 blood alcohol level, has made consistently less progress than the rest of the country in curbing the numbers of people killed in drunk-driving crashes.

In the nine years since New Hampshire lowered its blood-alcohol level, drunk-driving deaths have fluctuated between 50 and 67 a year.

Public Awareness

For many drivers, the threat of a fatal drunk-driving accident is still more than enough to guide them into safe choices, said Don Lesperance, owner of the Lakes Region Driver's Education school. As with all driving schools certified by the state, he's required to teach a minimum of eight hours about impaired driving. He doesn't show the gruesome movies about carnage on the highways, opting instead for films about families that experience a death or movies that illuminate the circumstances that can lead to tragic accidents.

"You look around the room and the kids are practically crying by the end," he said. "If we're making a difference (in drunk-driving deaths) that's also a sign of the times, that kids are much smarter than that. And not just about the ramifications of losing their license, in terms of losing their friends."

In addition to films, handouts and books, Lesperance said most kids hear speakers on drunk driving in school. And sadly, many know someone who died in an alcohol-related accident by the time they reach high school.

"There's been such a change in social attitudes," he said. "Parents these days tell their kids to call them and tell them to come get them if they don't have any other way of getting home. My parents didn't talk to me like that. And not that it always works that way, but it makes a huge difference as far as a kid's mindset goes. They know they have options."

Making people aware of those options is key, as far as organizations like Henry's are concerned. In light of the recent upswing in drunk-driving fatalities, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is preparing to unveil a new round of public awareness campaigns. These will go beyond the usual drunk-driving message, Henry said, and focus on "buzz driving."

"A lot of these people think you have to be rip-roaring drunk to be considered impaired," she said. "We're trying to get into the language that hey, maybe it's not okay to drive if you've just had a few. Do you want to be flown in a plane by a pilot who's just had a few? Do you want to be operated on by someone who's just had a few?"

The idea is not to preach against alcohol, Henry said, but to try and reach some of the people for whom the years of "don't drink and drive" has not worked.

"The bottom line is that there's a certain amount of the population you can reach with public awareness, and those are the people who will designate a driver, who will make the decision not to take a chance," Henry said.

"It's similar to what you saw with the AIDS awareness movement, encouraging people to use condoms. It was something they can grab onto. It worked really well, and it does work really well. But now there's a whole new generation who are used to hearing it, and they need something else."

A 2005 study compiled by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) found drunk driving to be on the rise, and the steady decline that started in the early '90s had come to an end.

The rate of drunk driving accidents in the United States rose 37% between 1997 and 1999, and continued to rise sharply in subsequent years. According to the report, which was published in the May issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, by the year 2002 the number had reached a heavy total of 159 alcohol-related accidents.

Before this the numbers were more hopeful. Between 1993 and 1997 the amount of alcohol-related accidents dropped more than 1%, from 123 million to 116 million.

With the rise in alcohol-related accidents comes a higher number of drunk-driving fatalities. From 1999 to 2003, the number of deaths due to drunk driving crashes rose approximately 2.5% to 17,013. Auto accidents are the leading cause of death in Americans under the age of 34, according to CDC findings. A shocking 30% of Americans will experience an alcohol-related accident in their life at some point. The economic burden of these accidents totals more than $50 billion each year.

Many of the accident counts come from telephone surveys that collected information on the drinking habits of more than 100,000 Americans. Callers questioned interviewees about how often they drink, and how often they drive when intoxicated.

The rise in deaths may be correlated with a rise in binge drinking, defined as drinking at least five drinks at a time. People who binge drink were found to be 13 times more likely to drink while intoxicated.

Dr. Robert H. Brewer, alcohol team leader at the CDC, suggested programs that can be implemented at the local and state levels that could aid in reversing this trend. Stricter enforcement of the drinking age law, cutting down the number of liquor licenses, and increasing taxes on alcohol could turn the tide on drinking overall.

April 21, 2005

By KEN THOMAS

The Associated Press

Monday, August 22, 2005; 6:46 PM

WASHINGTON - Drunken-driving deaths declined slightly across the nation and fell in 32 states last year, traffic safety officials said Monday in beginning a campaign to crack down on drunken driving during the Labor Day holiday.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported a 2 percent decrease in fatal crashes in 2004 involving at least a driver or a motorcycle rider with an illegal blood-alcohol level of 0.08 percent or higher.

The government said 12,874 motorists died under those circumstances in 2004, compared with 13,096 in 2003. All 50 states had a 0.08 standard with Minnesota's adoption of the law earlier this year.

NHTSA said a record number of 11,500 law enforcement officials would participate in its annual campaign, called "You Drink & Drive. You Lose." The crackdown, which runs through Sept. 5, will be bolstered by $13.9 million in advertising.

Texas saw a 10 percent reduction in its alcohol-related fatalities, accounting for 141 fewer deaths than in 2003. Others making significant reductions included Minnesota, Kansas, Iowa, Nebraska and the District of Columbia.

Kansas, which had a 29 percent decrease in alcohol-related fatalities in 2004, has targeted drunken driving through media campaigns, use of sobriety checkpoints and extra law enforcement patrols during weekends and at special events.

"We're getting more and more local law enforcement involved in our mobilizations," said Pete Bodyk of the Kansas Department of Transportation.

Utah had an 81 percent increase in alcohol-related fatalities, representing 29 more deaths in 2004 compared with the previous year. Mark Panos, deputy director of the Utah Highway Safety Office, attributed some of the growth to an increase in the number of motorists on the road as its population expands.

Several Southern states, including Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas, North Carolina and Tennessee, also posted higher fatality numbers.

Glynn Birch, president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, said his organization was advising people to designate a sober driver before they attend gatherings during the Labor Day holiday.

"It's important to note that impairment begins with the first drink, so your safest choice is to use public transportation, take a cab or find a sober driver," Birch said.

ITASCA, Ill., Oct. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Fatal injuries increased for the third straight year, according to a report released today by the National Safety Council. The council's 1996 "Accident Facts," its 76th annual report on injuries in America, shows that deaths caused by fatal injuries increased to 93,300 in 1995, a two percent increase from 91,400 deaths in 1994. Since 1992, when deaths reached a 68-year low of 86,777, fatalities have increased eight percent.

"The third increase in a row is a major cause for concern," said council President Jerry Scannell. "The continued growth in the economy can explain some, but not all, of the increase. This report clearly demonstrates that a redoubling of injury prevention efforts is necessary. Increasing traffic law enforcement and adopting stronger legislation can save more lives. Always wearing a safety belt and never drinking and driving are two choices everyone can make to substantially decrease the risk of injury," Scannell added.

Motor vehicle crashes caused 43,900 deaths in 1995 -- a three percent increase from 1994. Council officials say an increase in drinking and driving fatalities added to the rise in deaths. Alcohol-related traffic fatalities increased by 4 percent last year for the first time in ten years. In 1995, 41 percent of traffic fatalities involved alcohol, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

"Sadly, the 'don't drink and drive' message is being ignored by more people. Tougher laws against drunk driving, such as license revocation, .08 BAC, and stronger, high visibility enforcement are the proven ways to reverse the increase," said Scannell.

Although the council believes higher speed limits will lead to increased fatalities, the specific effects of the 1995 congressional action to repeal the National Maximum Speed Limit will not be known for at least a year, according to Alan Hoskin, the council's statistics manager. "We need to look at a full year of data before we really know what effect the law's repeal has had," Hoskin said.

Motor vehicle crashes are the single greatest cause of death due to fatal injuries, accounting for nearly half of the 1995 death total. Injuries in the home caused 26,400 deaths, injuries in public places caused 20,100 deaths and work injuries caused 5,300 fatalities.

Poisoning Deaths Increase Poisonings by solids and liquids caused 10,000 deaths in 1995 -- an 11 percent increase from the previous year. Since 1985, poisonings have increased by 144 percent. A surge in drug overdoses, primarily cocaine, is the main reason for the increase. For the first time, poisonings caused more deaths in the home than falls.

At home, work and in public places, falls caused 12,600 deaths; 4,500 people died from drowning; 4,100 died from fires and burns; and, 1,400 people died from unintentional firearms injuries.

Cost To Society

The council estimates that injuries cost society $434.8 billion in 1995. This includes estimates of economic costs of fatal and nonfatal unintentional injuries together with employer costs, vehicle damage costs and fire losses. The costs by class were: motor vehicle, $170.6 billion; work, $119.4; and, home and public, $158.4 billion. In 1995, fatal injuries were the fifth leading cause of death behind heart disease, cancer, stroke and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Further information, including charts and tables, is available by accessing the council's home page at http://www.nsc.org.

The National Safety Council is a not-for-profit, nongovernmental international public service organization dedicated to reducing fatal injuries.