Drunk-driving deaths fall in state during 5-year span

While Missouri ranks near the bottom of states in reducing the number of drunken driving fatalities over the past 20 years, there has been improvement in the last five years, according to figures released Wednesday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Since 1982, the percentage of alcohol-related fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled in Missouri has decreased by 44 percent.

Only South Carolina and South Dakota have shown less improvement, with fatalities dropping 30 percent in those states since 1982. The average decline nationally was 62 percent during the same period.

But things are looking up.

In the past five years, Missouri's alcohol-related fatalities declined 18 percent, a better rate than the 11 percent decline recorded nationally.

Don Otto, executive director of the Missouri Chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, said while Missouri has made strides in its drunken driving policy, there still is room for improvement.

"Drunk driving is no longer acceptable for adults, and designated driver and other programs have made a huge difference when you look at it over 20 years," Otto said. Much legislation has only been enacted recently, so it has not yet had time to make a full impact on rates, he said.

Lt. Robert Bonney of the Jackson police could recall only one DWI accident occurring within the last 10 years in Jackson that resulted in a death.

However, Cape Girardeau has seen three alcohol-related traffic deaths so far this year, with one being an intoxicated pedestrian struck by a car on Interstate 55, said Sgt. Jack Wimp, traffic supervisor for the police department.

This year's total is considered unusually high for the city because there were only three alcohol-related traffic deaths from 1992 to 1999, and none in 2000 or 2001, Wimp said.

He attributed Missouri's overall drop in deaths to changes in the law and better trained officers.

"I think lowering the legal blood alcohol content level to .08 percent last year helped out a lot," he said. "Our DWI arrests in the city are up about 25 percent this year. I don't know if that means there are just more drunk drivers out there, but it might mean that our officers are out there doing a better job of detecting and arresting those driving drunk and making the streets safer."

There were 1,098 traffic fatalities in Missouri in 2001, 48 percent of which were alcohol-related, according to the federal statistics. That's down from 54 percent in 1982, according to the statistics.

Missouri has the nation's 10th-highest rate of alcohol-related deaths. South Carolina has the highest rate, followed closely by Montana and Louisiana.

Last year in Missouri, there were 523 fatal alcohol-related accidents, the highest number since 1996, when 576 people died in alcohol-related accidents.

Some of the measures Missouri has taken to reduce drunken driving include lowering the blood-alcohol level from 0.10 percent to 0.08 percent and imposing mandatory alcohol testing of drivers in fatal accidents.

The state also has imposed a graduated driver's licensing system, which requires younger drivers to meet various requirements as a condition of receiving a license.

Otto said the challenge now is to secure more funding and make the public aware that drunken driving is still a problem.

"We do not, in my opinion, have the sufficient funds for the state highway patrol, Department of Public Safety and Division of Liquor Control to do the job the Legislature and people of Missouri want them to be doing," Otto said.

Chris Ricks, a spokesman for the Missouri State Highway Patrol, said attitudes about drinking and driving have changed significantly over the last 20 years.

"It used to be it was almost socially accepted," Ricks said. "Now it's not socially accepted at all."