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Drunk Driving Enforcement Fact Sheet
Highly visible law enforcement crackdowns, including checkpoints and saturation patrols, are proven to keep drunk drivers off the road. Every state should allow sobriety checkpoints to find and deter drunk drivers. MADD is working with law enforcement agencies as well as federal, state and local governments to increase DUI enforcement—especially during peak holiday periods.
Drunk Driving in the U.S.
· In 2007, there were nearly 13,000 drunk driving fatalities and countless other injuries.
· About 2/3 of all drunk driving arrests include a “first time” offender. “First time” offenders have typically driven drunk about 87 times before they are ever arrested and surveys shows most of the offenders have alcohol dependency issues.
· About 1/3 of all drivers arrested or convicted of driving under the influence are repeat offenders. These drivers are 40 percent more likely to be involved in a fatal crash than those without prior DUIs.
· In a recent study, 60% of those surveyed said they had operated a car or truck under the influence of alcohol or close to being under the influence of alcohol, up from 57 percent in 2000.
· Over 1.46 million drivers were arrested in 2006 for driving under the influence of alcohol or narcotics. This is an arrest rate of 1 for every 139 licensed drivers in the United States.
· Americans stand behind strong enforcement: 87% say they support the use of sobriety checkpoints. 65 percent also support the mandatory installation of interlocks for first time offenders.
Sobriety Checkpoints & Saturation Patrols
· Forty states and the District of Columbia allow sobriety checkpoints. All states allow saturation patrols.
· Research has shown that highly publicized, highly visible, and frequent sobriety checkpoints reduce alcohol related crashes and fatalities by an average of 20%.
· 87% of Americans surveyed say they support sobriety checkpoints to find and deter drunk drivers. 62% would like sobriety checkpoints to be conducted more often.
· 80% of Americans say they themselves would be discouraged from drinking and driving by sobriety checkpoints.
· Well-conducted sobriety checkpoints generally delay drivers for no more than 30 seconds and cause no traffic problems.

Drunk Driving. Over the Limit. Under Arrest.

· The national Drunk Driving. Over the Limit. Under Arrest. campaign is a comprehensive impaired driving prevention program organized by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) in partnership with Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), the Governors Highway Safety Association (GHSA) and the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP). The program focuses on combining high visibility enforcement of drunk driving laws in twice yearly national crackdowns with heightened public awareness through advertising and publicity.
· Over the Labor Day holiday and November/December holiday timeframe thousands of law enforcement agencies in all 50 states and the District of Columbia step up enforcement using sobriety checkpoints and saturation patrols. The effort is supported by $11 million (Labor Day & $8 million holiday) from Congress in paid national advertising to help put everyone on notice that if they are caught driving drunk, they will be arrested.

[Source: MADD]