Reducing Hardcore Drunk-Driving

In June [2000], the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board adopted a Safety Report on Actions to Reduce Fatalities, Injuries, and Crashes Involving the Hard Core Drinking Driver. For purposes of this report, the NTSB uses the term hard core drinking drivers to include repeat offender drinking drivers (that is, offenders who have prior convictions or arrests for a driving while impaired [DWI] by alcohol offense) and high-BAC offenders (that is, all offenders with a blood alcohol concentration [BAC] of 0.15 percent or greater). In 1998 alone, hard core drinking drivers were involved in a minimum of 6,370 highway fatalities, the estimated cost of which was at least $5.3 billion. The report concluded that, while hard core drinking drivers constituted only 0.8 percent (1 of 119) of all drivers on the road in the National Roadside Survey, they constituted 27 percent of drivers in fatal crashes during the same time period in 1996. These data clearly suggest that hard core drinking drivers are over-represented in fatal crashes.

The NTSB reviewed the literature on countermeasures that have been found effective in reducing recidivism, crashes, fatalities, and injuries. This report identifies the highway safety problem involving hard core drinking drivers, discusses research on control measures, and proposes a model program to the States. It also discusses steps taken by the United States Congress to address the hard core drinking driver problem by enacting certain provisions in the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21), and recommends that the Department of Transportation evaluate modifications to the provisions of TEA-21 so that it can be more effective.

The Safety Board believes that a model program to reduce hard core drinking driving should include the following:

Frequent and well-publicized statewide sobriety checkpoints that include checking for valid driver's licenses. Checkpoints should not be limited to holiday periods.
Vehicle sanctions to restrict or separate hard core drinking drivers from their vehicles, including license plate actions (impoundment, confiscation, or other actions); vehicle immobilization, impoundment, and forfeiture; and ignition interlocks for high-BAC first offenders and repeat offenders.
State and community cooperative programs involving driver licensing agencies, law enforcement officers, judges, and probation officers to enforce DWI suspension and revocation.
Legislation to require that DWI offenders who have been convicted or administratively adjudicated maintain a zero blood alcohol concentration while operating a motor vehicle.
Legislation that defines a high blood alcohol concentration (0.15 percent or greater) as an aggravated DWI offense that requires strong intervention similar to that ordinarily prescribed for repeat DWI offenders.
As alternatives to confinement, programs to reduce hard core drinking driver recidivism that include home detention with electronic monitoring and/or intensive probation supervision programs.
Legislation that restricts the plea bargaining of a DWI offense to a lesser, non-alcohol-related offense, and that requires the reasons for DWI charge reductions be entered into the public record.
Elimination of the use of diversion programs that permit erasing, deferring, or otherwise purging the DWI offense record or that allow the offender to avoid license suspension.
Administrative license revocation for BAC test failure and refusal.
A DWI record retention and DWI offense enhancement look-back period of at least 10 years.
Individualized sanction programs for hard core DWI offenders that rely on effective countermeasures for use by courts that hear DWI cases.

The full report can be reviewed on the NTSB's web site at http://www.ntsb.gov/. A printed copy of the report can be obtained by calling 202-314-6180.

(Source: The Newsletter of the International Council on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety [ICADTS] Vol. 11, No. 3; Summer 2000)

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