Although a study released today by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration found that fewer young drivers died in 2003, and that fewer of those deaths involved alcohol, Hawai'i deaths for drivers 15 to 20 years old increased 68 percent, from 19 in 2002 to 32 in 2003.

State transportation statistics for a similar age range — 15 to 24 years old — also show an increase. Those numbers show that in 2002, 32 traffic deaths in Hawai'i involved young drivers. The number grew to 42 for last year, said Scott Ishikawa, spokesman for the Department of Transportation. And alcohol-related deaths for that age group rose from 17 to 31 over the same period, he said.

"That was pretty alarming," Ishikawa said.

One of the tragic features of the 2003 death toll was that many of the fatal, alcohol-related accidents involved more than one person. In nine accidents, 24 lives were claimed. "People, especially young people, are continuing to drive with someone who is drunk," Ishikawa said.

Nationwide, some 3,657 young drivers died in 2003, compared with 3,827 the previous year — a decline of 170, or 4.4 percent, according to today's federal study.

From 2002 to 2003, the number of people killed in accidents involving young drivers — drivers and their passengers, people in other vehicles, pedestrians — fell from 9,251 to 8,666 (585, or 6.3 percent).

The national data also show a steady decline in alcohol involvement in crashes among young people. Alcohol was a factor in 25 percent of the fatal crashes involving young drivers last year.

In Hawai'i, alcohol-related driving deaths overall have been on a relatively steady climb since 1999, said Connie Abram, executive director for Mothers Against Drunk Driving Hawai'i. But the group has no solid reason for why that has happened.

"We're perplexed but really concerned," Abram said. "We're looking at more creative targeted ways to address the problem."

Among the solutions is an existing program that uses young people to lobby for changes in government and a "peer education" program that may start next year if $25,000 in state funding is approved, Abram said. The latter program ends up with teenagers teaching younger students about the dangers of drinking and driving.

"We really think that young kids seeing a teenager saying you should be alcohol free will get the message across," Abram said.

Law enforcement efforts also will increase this month, but not only with young drivers as a target. Police in all four Hawai'i counties will set up weekly sobriety checkpoints for the next 12 months in what has been dubbed the "52/12" program.

The idea is to increase the element of surprise since many drivers have long been familiar with the holidays-only practice of checkpoints.

"This program is meant to shake things up," Ishikawa said.

Mainland cities have used the program successfully, he said.

Abram said the idea is not solely to catch drunk drivers. "The idea is not to pick up drunk drivers but to deter drunk driving to begin with," she said. "We hope no one is out there to be detected."