A new federal highway program offers states millions of dollars to implement tougher drunken driving laws, including stricter standards for determining when motorists are legally intoxicated.
Congress provided $20 million to finance the new grant program this year, and federal transportation officials expect at least a dozen states initially to qualify for a share of the money."It seems to be a very good carrot," said Adele Derby of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which operates the program.
Nationwide, about 22,000 people were killed and 355,000 injured in alcohol-related traffic crashes in 1990.
The number of fatal alcohol-related traffic accidents has dropped steadily since 1982, but alcohol-related crashes still accounted for nearly half of all traffic deaths in 1990, the government said.
Congress approved the grant program as part of the $151 billion legislation to finance highway and mass transit systems.
"We're definitely headed in the right direction," said Milo Kirk, national president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
To qualify for grants, states must take steps to combat drunken driving. The five steps include:
- Lowering the legal limit for defining intoxication by drivers to a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.08 percent. Only five states - California, Maine, Oregon, Utah and Vermont - meet that standard. Most states have a blood-alcohol limit of 0.1 percent.
- Providing for prompt loss, defined as within 30 days, of a driver's license for a motorist convicted of drunken driving.
- Establishing a system of sobriety checkpoints to help police catch drunken drivers.
- Implementing a program to improve enforcement of laws making 21 the drinking age, including providing a distinctive driver's license for those under 21.
- Making drunken driving prevention programs self-supporting by financing them with a portion of traffic fines and penalties from drunken driving offenses.
In general, a state must meet four of the five requirements to receive a grant.