State getting grant to fight DUI

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Friday, Nov. 7, 2003 | 9:02 a.m.

A federal grant of $734,673 is coming to Nevada as a reward for stiffening the drunken driving law.

The U.S. Department of Transportation is sending the money to Nevada because the Legislature lowered the blood-alcohol limit to prove drunken driving from 0.10 to 0.08.

If the state would not have passed the law, it would have lost close to $4 million in federal highway construction funds, officials have said.

Chuck Abbott, chief of the Nevada Office of Traffic Safety, said Thursday that about 60 percent of the money will be sent to local governments to strengthen their DUI programs in ways such as setting up roadblocks, and the remaining 40 percent will be used for public education on drinking and driving.