Hawai'i's DUI death rate falls
| • | Chart: Drunken driving fatalities |
Advertiser Staff and News Services
Hawai'i had the sixth-biggest decrease in the rate of alcohol-related traffic deaths in the United States between 1998 and 2002, according to newly released federal statistics.
Alcohol-related traffic death rates increased or held steady in 19 states in that four-year period, according to data suggesting that efforts to curb drunken driving nationwide have reached a plateau.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's report, being released today, calculated the fatality rate per 100 million miles driven. NHTSA considers a crash alcohol-related if a driver had anything above a 0.01 blood-alcohol level, which is far lower than the 0.08 legal limit in 45 states.
Thirty-one states and the District of Columbia saw their alcohol-related death rates decrease, NHTSA says in its new report. Four states — Vermont, Indiana, Oregon and Iowa — and the District of Columbia saw their rates fall by 25 percent or more.
The Hawai'i rates fell by 24.3 percent, placing sixth.
"Maybe we're doing something right here," said Connie Abram, executive director of Mothers Against Drunk Driving Hawai'i.
Abram said the news was encouraging since the number of fatalities have remained somewhat the same over the years while vehicle miles have increased. "If you look at our percentages, we have to stay ever vigilant in our traffic safety efforts."
South Carolina saw the greatest increase in its death rate during the four-year period, followed by Kansas, South Dakota, Rhode Island and Wisconsin. The states with the highest numbers of alcohol-related deaths per miles traveled were Montana (1.22), South Carolina (1.17) and South Dakota (1.08). Vermont (0.28), Utah (0.30) and Maine (0.35) had the lowest overall death rates. Hawai'i's death rate was 0.56.
Barbara Harsha, executive director of the Washington-based Governors Highway Safety Association, said experts can't explain why some states have far fewer drunken driving deaths than others.
"There don't seem to be any patterns," she said. "Some have seen increases after a period of decreases and they're doing the same things as they were in the past."
Drunken driving deaths declined markedly during the 1980s and early '90s as organizations such as Mothers Against Drunk Driving were formed.
Vermont was the only state that showed consistent annual declines in its alcohol-related traffic deaths, NHTSA said.
Advertiser Staff Writer Peter Boylan contributed to this report.
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