Drunk-Driving Deaths

Despite a steady reduction in drunk-driving deaths over the past decade, we're still a nation with a big problem, according to Transportation Secretary Federico Pea. Pea offered these chilling statistics to make his point: Every two minutes on American highways, a drunk driver injures someone; every half hour, a drunk driver kills someone. The resulting health-care costs are estimated to be $5 billion annually.

The good news is that the statistics aren't nearly as bad as they used to be. In 1982, over 25,000, or 57 percent of highway deaths, were alcohol-related. When Pea took office in 1993, the alcohol-related death rate was down to 46 percent, and he set a goal to reduce it to 42 percent by 1996. That target was surpassed last year, with just under 17,000 of all highway fatalities resulting from alcohol abuse. That one-year reduction in alcohol-related fatalities saved 2300 lives and $4.2 billion in health-care costs, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

However, at a press conference to announce the fatality reduction, NHTSA Administrator Dr. Ricardo Martinez called continuing injuries and fatalities resulting from drunk driving a "national public health emergency that is overwhelming the health-care system." The agency set a new goal for the year 2005, to reduce drunk-driving fatalities to 11,000. Through a $45-million grant program,NHTSA plans to encourage states and localities to lower the blood alcohol concentration (BAC) level for drunk driving from 0.10 to 0.08. It also hopes to encourage states to adopt zero tolerance for drinking among underage youths, increase sobriety checkpoints, and create more local programs targeting problem drinkers, repeat offenders, and high-risk youth.

Pea, joined by Sen. Frank R. Lautenberg (D-N.J.), who spearheaded legislation to raise the legal drinking age to 21, also let it be known they would fight any efforts by the 104th Congress to return the legal drinking age to 18 or to roll back other federal highway safety laws, such as motorcycle-helmet and state seatbelt laws.

Meanwhile, Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-Colo.) introduced legislation to eliminate highway funding penalties for states that don't have motorcycle-helmet and seatbelt laws. Under his bill, education and safety programs would suffice to keep highway funds intact. In the House, Scott Klug, R-Wis., introduced legislation that would eliminate federal mandates for laws requiring seatbelt and helmet use, as well as for national speed-limit and drinking-age laws.