WASHINGTON – Drunken driving deaths fell in all but one of 13 states targeted by a campaign that includes money for ads and enforcement efforts to get drinkers off the road, the government said Wednesday.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration wants to expand the $5 million program, but won’t know if it has the money until Congress approves a long-delayed highway bill.
The program paid for ads around the July 4 and Labor Day holidays. States added to that by increasing the number of police officers and highway checkpoints.
Drunken driving deaths then dropped an average of 6.7 percent in Alaska, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, Mississippi, New Mexico, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas and West Virginia. Montana also participated, but saw its death rate rise by 1.6 percent.
In Washington state alcohol-related traffic fatalities fell from 299 in 2002 to 259 in 2003.
Nationally, drunken driving deaths dropped 3 percent in 2003, from 17,524 to 17,013. That marked the first decline since 1999. Twenty-eight states had fewer alcohol-related deaths.
NHTSA, www.nhtsa.dot.gov, spent a total of $10.5 million on advertising in 2003 and $14 million in 2004. In both years, $5 million went to the 13 states, which were targeted because of their high death rates from drunken driving.
In Congress, lawmakers are expected to try to pass a compromise bill in September. The Senate version of the federal highway bill includes no money for drunken driving ads, but the House version contains $20 million, NHTSA spokesman Rae Tyson said.
Tyson said the imposition of lower blood-alcohol limits also has helped reduce deaths. Last year, 14 states adopted the tougher blood-alcohol standard of 0.08 percent to avoid losing federal highway funds.
In July, Delaware became the 50th state to lower its legal blood-alcohol limit to 0.08 percent.
John Moulden, president of the National Commission Against Drunken Driving, said that despite the reduction last year, the number of alcohol-related traffic deaths has remained largely the same for the last decade.
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