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Wednesday, December 3, 2003
NHTSA 52-03
Contact: Rae Tyson, (202) 366-9550
NHTSA Unveils Strategy to Reduce Impaired Driving, Sets Priorities for
Immediate Future
Citing the lack of substantial improvement in the number of alcohol-related
fatalities since the mid-1990s, the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration (NHTSA) today released a high priority comprehensive departmental
plan to significantly reduce impaired driving on the nation’s roads in the
coming years.
The report proposes a multi-disciplinary approach to address the complexities of
the legal, social health and safety infrastructures involved in control of the
impaired driving problem. The National Institutes for Alcohol Abuse and
Alcoholism estimate the total cost of alcohol impairments, including medical
consequences, crime, and accidental injury to be $184.6 billion annually. The
costs of alcohol-related motor vehicle fatalities account for 8.5 percent of
this total.
The report also suggests generating vehicle-based solutions and improving the
roadway environment. It identifies six critical countermeasures, all related to
law enforcement and prosecution of DWI offenses, including specialized courts
and strong alcoholic beverage control policy for minors. It offers five critical
infrastructure initiatives for states to make their impaired driver control
system more effective.
Key among the countermeasures cited in the report to address impaired driving is
high visibility traffic enforcement, enhanced support for DWI prosecution and
adjudication, and medical screening of high-risk populations for alcohol use
problems. These three priorities will be the department’s focus on impaired
driving prevention in the immediate future.
“We already know what works to stop impaired driving,” said NHTSA Administrator
Jeffrey W. Runge, M.D. “These strategies will save lives today, if we work
together to implement them in every community.”
Dr. Runge announced the department’s near-term impaired driving initiative at a
news conference today in Washington, DC, to kick off the 17th annual Mothers
Against Drunk Driving (MADD) Tie One On For Safety holiday ribbon campaign.
The report concludes, “NHTSA will continue to explore ways to achieve effective
collaborative efforts with those who have the biggest stake in this issue - the
citizens of this nation that absorb the cost of this problem in medical costs,
lost productivity and human suffering from the loss of loved ones – the victims
of impaired driving.”
Today’s report joins previous reports on safety belt use, vehicle compatibility
and rollover mitigation. All are now available on the agency's World Wide Web
site at
http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/IPTReports.html, and also on the U.S. Department of
Transportation’s docket management system at
http://dms.dot.gov/.
The docket numbers for each of the respective reports are Safety Belt Use,
NHTSA-2003-14620; Vehicle Compatibility, NHTSA-2003-14623; Rollover Mitigation,
NHTSA-2003-14622; and Impaired Driving, NHTSA-2003-14621.
Written comments may be submitted to the Docket Management System, U.S.
Department of Transportation, PL 401, 400 Seventh Street, S.W., Washington, DC
20590-0001. Comments also may be submitted to the docket electronically at
http://dms.dot.gov/. In every case, the
comments should refer to the docket numbers.
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