Nevada gets C grade in drunken driving fight

Jace Radke

Thursday, Nov. 21, 2002 | 11:07 a.m.

The nation and Nevada rate a C grade in combating drunken driving, according to a new study released by Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

The study focuses on underage drinking and MADD's belief in the need to move the legal limit of intoxication from a blood alcohol level of .10 to .08 as the main factors in giving Nevada the average grade.

Over the past three years national drunken driving deaths have climbed from a yearly average of about 16,500 to more than 17,400 in 2001, said Wendy Hamilton, president of MADD, an organization that does not have a chapter in Southern Nevada.

"Drunk drivers are winning again," Hamilton said today at a news conference in Washington, D.C. "Drunk driving continues to be the most frequently committed violent crime.

"We are losing ground in the war on drunk driving and underage drinking."

Of Nevada's 313 traffic related fatalities in 2001 only 133 were alcohol related, according to MADD. Those numbers are actually down from 2000 when 145 of the state's 323 traffic fatalities involved alcohol. The slight drop actually increased Nevada's overall grade from a C- to a C, MADD officials said.

However, over the last three years fatal drunken driving accidents are spiking in Metro Police's jurisdiction, that includes 1.46 million people in Clark County. In 2001, 26 of the 97 fatal crashes in Metro's jurisdiction were alcohol related up from 18 of 91 crashes in 2000 and 13 of 100 crashes in 1999.

Sandy Heverly, director of the advocacy group Stop DUI, said she doesn't give a lot of credence to the MADD statistics, but agrees with some of the recommendations for improvements.

MADD officials said that the statistics in their study are generated from law enforcement sources, but do not take into account population shifts or tourist activity, which in Las Vegas accounts for an additional 35 million visitors a year.

"We may have seeing an increase in drunk driving accidents, but we are also seeing an increase in the population and the amount of people on the roads," Heverly said. "We will continue to fight to have a .08 limit instead of .10, and we are continuing to push for stronger graduated licensing."

The change to a .08 limit is expected to go before the state Legislature for the seventh consecutive session. In the past the measure has been thwarted by the resort industry, tavern owners and other strong tourism-related lobbies, supporters of the bill said.

A program that would prevent new drivers from driving with more than one passenger under the age of 20 for six months is also expected to be considered in Carson City.

"There are always things we can improve on, but Nevada already has some good DUI laws," Heverly said. "Our judges set some of the highest bails in the nation. It's not uncommon for judges to set million dollar bails in these cases."

Nationally, 17,448 people were killed in alcohol-related accidents and more than 500,000 were injured last year. The annual economic costs of alcohol-related crashes exceeds $114 billion, Hamilton said.

"There is an urgent need for more government resources dedicated to drunk driving and underage drinking," Hamilton said. "The war on drunk driving has reached a complacent plateau and we must change the dangerous public perception that the fight against drunk driving has been won."

No state earned an A in the report, with California receiving the highest grade of a B+.

The only state to receive an F was Montana, and Nevada was one of 15 states to receive a C.