Hardcore Drunk Driving
New Insurance Institute for Highway Safety poll shows support for advanced technologies to stop drunk driving
Information released from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety today indicate most Americans support the use of advanced technologies that would prevent drivers from starting their vehicles if they were at or above the legal limit.
The Century Council, funded by distillers to fight drunk driving and underage drinking, has long supported the exploration of these advanced technologies if they are moderately priced, absolutely reliable, set at the .08 legal BAC limit, and unobtrusive to the sober driver. In fact, The Century Council’s recent research on public acceptance of advanced technologies to prevent drunk driving also reflects strong support (63%) among Americans for these innovative solutions as a means to eliminate drunk driving.
As the Federal Government and auto manufacturers work toward the development of affordable, reliable solutions that are set at the legal limit, The Century Council continues to strongly support countermeasures that will prevent drunk driving and in particular stop hardcore drunk driving. Hardcore drunk drivers are those who drive with a high blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .15 or above, who do so repeatedly, as demonstrated by having more than one drunk driving arrest, and who are highly resistant to changing their behavior despite previous sanctions, treatment, or education efforts. These hardcore drunk drivers account for the majority of alcohol-impaired fatalities. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in 2007, drivers with a BAC of .15 or above and who have a prior DWI conviction accounted for 77 percent of the alcohol-impaired fatal crashes nationally.
Advanced technology holds tremendous promise for stopping drunk driving. However, it will be a long time before every driver in this country owns or drives a car equipped with the new technology. In the meantime, The Century Council supports comprehensive solutions to the hardcore drunk driving problem that exists in every community across the nation. Among this hard-to-reach population, behavioral change is and for many years will be a critical component to America’s drunk driving countermeasures. The Century Council strongly believes actions must also be taken to stop hardcore drunk driving including swift identification, effective punishment that includes mandatory ignition interlock use, effective treatment with intensive supervision and monitoring, and the expansion of DWI courts. Education for America’s criminal justice professionals is also essential to our nation’s efforts.
Long-term behavior change is essential to our nation’s efforts to fight drunk driving. The Century Council and its criminal justice partners are seeking to improve DWI adjudication and have made recommendations to the United States Congress for the reauthorization of the highway bill. For more information on our Congressional recommendations, visit www.centurycouncil.org.
Binge drinking and the hardcore drunk driver
In 2008, the median BAC of someone arrested for drunk driving was .16, according to drunk driving statistics provided by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. It takes a considerable amount of alcohol to reach that high of a BAC.
A recent news article cited a Center for Disease Control and Prevention study on people who participate in the irresponsible consumption of alcohol, or binge drinking, and found that 12 percent of participants in the study reported that they had driven within two hours of consuming their last drink.
As the article notes, binge drinking plays a significant factor in the thousands of alcohol-related traffic crashes each year. Drivers with a high BAC, or hardcore drunk drivers, are a unique segment of our population and deserve special attention. The Century Council has developed several tools to help address these DUI offenders. We urge you learn more about The Century Council’s initiatives to fight drunk driving.
Drunk driving fatalities fall to lowest recorded level ever
Recent data released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) shows a considerable decrease in the number of alcohol-impaired traffic fatalities. The 2008 Traffic Safety Annual Assessment shows that the number of alcohol-impaired traffic fatalities decreased 9.7 percent from 2007 to 2008. This significant reduction is yet another strong indication that the many efforts being made in the fight against drunk driving have had an impact. We are encouraged by the progress and will continue our comprehensive efforts to ensure that this downward trend continues.
According to NHTSA, the number of people killed in motor vehicle crashes and the fatality rate per 100 million vehicle miles traveled (VMT) in 2008 reached historically low levels. In 2008, 37,261 people were killed in motor vehicle crashes, a decrease of nearly 10 percent from 41,259 in 2007, with a record low fatality rate of VMT of 1.27. Drunk driving fatalities, that is fatalities involving a driver or motorcycle operator with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) level of .08 or higher, decreased equally to 11,773, the lowest recorded level since NHTSA began keeping records in 1982. Overall, drunk driving fatalities accounted for 32% of all traffic fatalities last year. Forty-three states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico had reductions in the number of alcohol-impaired traffic fatalities.
In the News
Everyone should take a minute to listen to what Clarence Gage of Wisconsin has to say in this video clip. He's been caught drunk driving 18 times. As the article notes, he has been driving drunk for more than 45 years – since 1962. He can’t even remember how many times he’s been caught. Clearly, he doesn’t seem to care that he is arrested for driving drunk, and he does not fully understand the consequences that can occur when someone operates a vehicle while they are intoxicated.
The Century Council, the National Judicial College, the National Association of Prosecutor Coordinators, the National Association of Drug Court Professionals, the National District Attorneys Association, the American Probation and Parole Association, and the National Partnership on Alcohol Misuse and Crime, have come together to fight for additional resources to expand the use of specialized DWI courts and to provide comprehensive and continual training to judges, prosecutors, law enforcement officers and probation/parole/corrections/treatment officials. These DWI courts and trainings will help coordinate the prosecution, adjudication, supervision and treatment of all DWI offenders.
We must take decisive action to get these offenders off our roads.
In communities where these specialized courts and training programs have been implemented, the cycle is being broken by reducing recidivism among hardcore drunk drivers, who are responsible for 67 percent of all alcohol-impaired traffic fatalities. Drivers such as Clarence Gage
That's why we have come together to support recommendations for the Federal highway bill, SAFETEA-LU, that governs all the federal surface transportation spending in the United States – recommendations which will keep our communities safe and reduce the number of hardcore drunk drivers on our roads.
Learn more at www.centurycouncil.org/hardcoredrunkdriver.
The Century Council Presents Panel on Judicial Education at Lifesavers
The Century Council will be participating in the 2009 Lifesavers Conference from March 29th through April 1st, at the Gaylord Opryland Convention Center in Nashville, TN. As part of the conference's Criminal Justice series of workshops, The Century Council will be presenting the panel "Lessons Learned from Judicial Education on Hardcore Drunk Drivers".
This one hour session will consist of: an overview of the award winning Hardcore Drunk Driving Judicial Education Program, which includes the Hardcore Drunk Driving Judicial Guide: A Resource Outlining Judicial Challenges, Effective Strategies and Model Programs (PDF) and a series of judicial education workshops; a presentation on the findings of the project's Judicial Education Workshop's Evaluation (PDF); and the release of the new Hardcore Drunk Driving Prosecutorial Guide (PDF) developed in collaboration with the National District Attorneys Association.
In addition, information on The Century Council and its outreach materials designed to assist communities in their fight against drunk driving and underage drinking, will be available at the organization's booth in the conference's exhibit area.
Solutions to Hardcore Drunk Driving
Together with the Congressional Stop DUI Caucus, The Century Council teamed up with its partners to present joint recommendations to Congress this week in a briefing for Congressional staff. One of the speakers at the briefing was The Honorable Kent Lawrence, judge of the State Court of Clarke County in Athens, Georgia and a national leader on DWI Courts. The Century Council, the National Association of Drug Court Professionals, the National Judicial College, the National District Attorneys Association, the American Probation and Parole Association, the National Association of Prosecutors, and the National Partnership on Alcohol Misuse and Crime are urging Members of Congress to provide funding to states in the next highway bill that will reduce hardcore drunk driving through expansion of DWI courts, Traffic Safety Resource Prosecutors and trainings for criminal justice professionals. For more information on these joint recommendations, click here.
