Drunken driving fatalities down 7% in USA

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States that target drunken driving with aggressive enforcement efforts saw their DUI fatality rates drop from 2007 to 2008, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said Monday, minutes after he and other officials launched a national holiday crackdown on impaired driving.
"Our feeling is in states where you have real tough law enforcement, where the law enforcement people are no-nonsense, those are the states that have been able to reduce their numbers," LaHood said. "In states where they don't have tough law enforcement, or they don't do it as aggressively as other states, the numbers are not that good."
BY STATE: Alcohol-related traffic deaths
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the drunken-driving fatality rate in the USA declined about 7% from 2007 to 2008, continuing a decades-long drop. Drunken-driving deaths have been trending downward since 1982, two years after Mothers Against Drunk Driving began focusing attention on the issue. There were 11,773 such fatalities in 2008, a 44% drop from the 21,113 in 1982, according to NHTSA and U.S. Department of Transportation data.
As the nation prepares to celebrate the party-rich holiday season, LaHood had a simple message for American motorists: Have fun, but don't get behind the wheel if you've been drinking.
LaHood, White House drug czar Gil Kerlikowske and John Saunders of the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) launched the annual national winter holiday crackdown on impaired driving. Thousands of law enforcement agencies across the USA will be targeting drunken driving in the campaign, which runs through New Year's Day. Each state has its own version.
Highway safety experts such as Jacob Nelson, director of traffic safety policy and research for auto club AAA, say such high-profile crackdowns are highly effective because they've been proven to deter drunken driving. "The real purpose isn't really to capture or punish drunk drivers," Nelson said. "They're meant to deter drunk driving altogether. ... It creates the perception that people are likely to get caught if they drive drunk.
"What makes enforcement campaigns like the national crackdown so valuable is the clear message we send to the public — that law enforcement is actively looking to get drunk drivers off the road."
In Vermont, the drunken-driving fatality rate dropped 45% from 2007 to 2008, the nation's largest decline. Vermont officials have noticed anecdotal evidence that liquor sales in bars drop while alcohol sales at liquor stores go up during DUI crackdowns around major holidays, said Betsy Ross, spokeswoman for the Vermont Governor's Highway Safety Program. "So people are drinking at home."
In Kansas, the DUI fatality rate jumped 36% from 2007 to 2008. Officials see the increase as a statistical anomaly. "One year does not make a trend," said Chris Bortz, grants manager for the Kansas Department of Transportation. He said that the state aggressively targets drunken driving and that the rate had dropped two of the previous four years before 2008.
Saunders, an executive board member of the GHSA, said some states are using new media and high-tech approaches such as Twitter, a new iPhone application and Xbox 360 Live to spread the message:
•Delaware, Michigan and Rhode Island are among states using Twitter to get out the DUI message.
•Colorado kicked off its campaign, which includes the State Patrol and 50 other agencies, with an iPhone application that estimates blood-alcohol content. "R-U-Buzzed" can be downloaded at Apple's App Store.
•Washington state's campaign includes paid messages on television, radio and online gaming ads on the game system Xbox 360 Live.
"We know the holidays lead people to do more drinking, and do more drinking and driving," LaHood said. "We're just saying, if you drink, call a cab, catch a ride with a relative, catch the bus — but you can't get behind the wheel."
Drunken driving by state
Alcohol-related traffic deaths* in 2007 and 2008, plus the 2008 drunken-driving fatality rate per 100 million miles driven and change from 2007: