Noisemakers, funny hats and a toast – or a few – assuredly all will be invoked in celebrations this evening to welcome 2007.
Sadly, another holiday tradition undoubtedly will come to pass as well – revelers who’ve had too much to drink will get behind the wheels of their cars and cause accidents.
Of all fatal accidents on New Year’s Day 2004, nearly 69 percent were alcohol-related, according to statistics compiled by Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
The organization recently announced a national campaign to eliminate drunken driving, encouraging all states to require installation of alcohol ignition interlock devices for convicted drunken drivers.
“Anybody who violates the public trust needs an interlock,” Chuck Hurley, MADD chief executive, said in a visit to The Post in August.
It’s an intriguing idea and one that bears further investigation.
New Mexico, which has had a longstanding and serious problem with drunken driving, a year ago became the first state to require first-time drunk drivers to install interlock devices in their cars.
Ignition interlocks prevent vehicles from starting when they detect alcohol on a driver’s breath.
Twelve months after the law was enacted, there was an 11 percent decrease in drunken-driving fatalities in New Mexico, a significant drop that the state’s governor attributed, at least in part, to interlocks.
But the first year of the new law also exposed weaknesses in the policy. The Albuquerque Tribune reported that less than half the drivers required to have an ignition interlock device actually had them installed. Of the 11,789 convictions, just 5,038 interlocks were installed.
Some offenders simply drive with licenses that have been revoked, the newspaper reported. Others lie to the judge, saying they don’t have a vehicle. And still others coax passengers – sometimes children – to blow into the devices for them.
Obviously, if lawmakers in other states consider adopting interlock laws, they ought to look to New Mexico for lessons learned.
Since the founding of MADD in 1980, there has been an increased public awareness about the dangers of drunken driving. There also has been a 40 percent decline in alcohol-related traffic fatalities.
But the downward trend has stalled. Each year, nearly 13,000 people nationwide are killed by drunken drivers and even more are injured.
In Colorado, the problem is a serious one. Recently released figures showed more than 40 percent of traffic fatalities were linked to alcohol consumption, according to End Needless Death on Our Roadways, a traffic safety advocacy group. The statistics mean that in 2005, 244 people died on the roadways in crashes where alcohol was involved.
Colorado’s highway patrol has stepped up drunken driving checkpoints and increased patrols, but the problem persists.
It’s clear that the exploration of new tactics in fighting drunken driving are warranted and interlocks are a promising weapon to address this deadly situation. But as for tonight, take matters into your own hands: Don’t drink and drive and don’t let anyone else do it, either.
