SAFETEA-LU

This year, the United States Congress will work to reauthorize the highway bill. This legislation funds America’s roads and bridges and also our safety efforts. Each time this bill is reauthorized, The Century Council works with its partners to issue recommendations that would reduce drunk driving. Though safety is but a tiny piece of this massive legislation, it is a top priority to increase resources for the criminal justice system in order to more effectively adjudicate drunk driving cases.

Since recordkeeping began in 1982, alcohol-impaired driving fatalities have dropped 38 percent due to the hard work of many dedicated organizations and important laws passed at the local, state and Federal levels. Our groups support efforts to enforce state .08 BAC laws and applaud the nation’s general deterrence efforts such as high visibility enforcement mobilizations.

Despite this important progress, fatalities caused by hardcore drunk drivers – repeat DWI offenders, and drivers at high blood alcohol concentration (BAC) levels of .15% and above – have not significantly decreased. This hard-to-reach population doesn’t respond to traditional deterrence efforts and sanctions. These hardcore drunk drivers need a more comprehensive set of sanctions aimed at not only punishing, but also rehabilitating the offender.

DWI cases are among the most complex cases to adjudicate. Without strengthening our system for convicting the offenders, focusing on long term behavior change among hardcore drunk drivers, the nation’s investment in enforcement and apprehension cannot be maximized. The Century Council sat down with judges, prosecutors, and probation and parole officials from across the country to examine what countermeasures are most needed to reduce hardcore drunk driving.

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