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The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has published
a safety study Deficiencies in Enforcement, Judicial, and Treatment
Programs Related to Repeat Offender Drunk-Drivers which identifies
repeat offender drinking drivers as a serious traffic safety problem.
The 'hard core drinking drivers' for the purpose of the report
were identified as offenders who have prior convictions or arrests
for a Driving While Impaired (DWI) by alcohol offence or are high-BAC
offenders (that is offenders with a blood alcohol concentration
(BAC) of 0.15 or greater).
The report claims that between 1983-1998, 137,338 people died
in crashes involving hard-core drinking drivers and according
to NHTSA data for the same period 99,812 people were injured in
fatal crashes involving hard-core drinking drivers. In 1998 alone,
hard-core drinking drivers were involved in 6,370 highway fatalities,
the estimated cost of which was at least $5.3 billion.
The report suggested the following measures would reduce hard-core
drink- drivers (a) A revised definition of "repeat offenders"
that includes administrative actions on DWI offences, (b)To require
mandatory treatment for offenders, (c) To establish an extended
period for record retention and DWI offence look-back , (d) To
require administratively imposed vehicle sanctions, (e)To eliminate
provisions for community service and (f)To provide for the inclusion
of home detention with electronic monitoring.
As a result of this review, the Safety Board issued a recommendation
to the Governors and Legislative Leaders of the 50 States and
to the Mayor and Council of the District of Columbia, to establish
a hard-core drinking driver program that is designed to reduce
the incidence of alcohol-related crashes and fatalities. The programme
would include highly visible enforcement, administrative license
revocation, vehicle sanctions, special laws for aggravated driving
while impaired offences and zero BAC for repeat offenders, limits
on plea-bargaining, alternatives to confinement, and improved
record-keeping, as described in the model program. A recommendation
to the U.S Department of Transportation was also issued by the
Board, regarding improvements to the Transportation Equity Act
for the 21st Century.
Publication: NTSB Abstract SR-00/01Deficiencies in Enforcement,
Judicial, and Treatment Programs Related to Repeat Offender Drunk
Drivers (NTSB/SS-84/04) The Report Offender Study). |
