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New York State DUI Law Enact
In 2004, there were 16,694 alcohol-related fatalities nationwide, based on preliminary data released by the NHTSA.
The Safety Board made a series of recommendations in 1984 to address detecting, arresting, and adjudicating repeat offenders. Because thousands of deaths continue to occur involving individuals who drive while intoxicated, in 2000 the Board focused its efforts on hard core drinking drivers.
Hard core drinking drivers (repeat offender-drinking drivers with a prior driving-while-intoxicated [DWI] arrest or conviction within the past 10 years or offenders with a BAC of 0.15 percent or greater) pose an increased risk of crashes, injuries, and fatalities.
Hard core drinking drivers are overrepresented in fatal crashes. While hard core drinking drivers constituted only 0.8 percent of all drivers on the road in the National Roadside Survey, they constituted 27 percent of drivers in fatal crashes during the same time period in 1996.[1] In 2004, hard core drinking drivers were involved in a minimum of 9,081 highway fatalities, the estimated cost of which was at least $8.9 billion.
The Board believes that a model program to reduce hard core drinking driving would incorporate the following elements: (1) statewide sobriety checkpoints; (2) vehicle sanctions to restrict or separate hard core drinking drivers from their vehicles; (3) State and community cooperative programs to enforce DWI driver's license suspension and revocation; (4) legislation to require that DWI offenders maintain a zero BAC while operating a motor vehicle; (5) legislation that defines a high BAC (0.15 percent or greater) as an "aggravated" DWI offense; (6) alternatives to confinement, such as home detention with electronic monitoring; (7) legislation that restricts the plea bargaining of a DWI offense to a lesser, non-alcohol-related offense; (8) elimination of diversion programs that permit erasing, deferring, or otherwise purging the DWI offense record or that allow the offender to avoid license suspension; (9) administrative license revocation (ALR) for BAC test failure and refusal; (10) a DWI record retention and DWI offense enhancement look-back period of at least 10 years; and (11) individualized sanction programs for hard core DWI offenders.
Summary of Action
Since the Safety Board's recommendation was issued, all States have considered legislation related to the Board's recommendation, and at least 22 States and the District of Columbia have adopted one or more elements of the model program. No State has all of the elements recommended in the Board's model program; however 5 States (CA, NH, OH, UT, and VA) have made sufficient progress for closure [pending Board approval for CA and VA].
40 States and the District of Columbia authorize sobriety checkpoints (element 1) (AL, AK, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, FL, GA, HI, IL, IN, KS, KY, LA, ME, MD, MA, MS, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, PA, SC, SD, TN, UT, VT, VA, and WV), but not all States conduct sobriety checkpoints with the same frequency.
40 States have alternatives to confinement (element 6) (AL, AK, AZ, CA, CO, DE, FL, HI, ID, IL, IN, IA, KS, LA, MD, MA, MI, MN, MO, MT, NE, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, ND, OH, OK, OR, SC, SD, TN, UT, VT, VA, WA, WV, and WI).
25 States have plea-bargaining restrictions (element 7) (AL, AZ, AR, CA, CO, CT, DE, GA, IA, KS, KY, MN, MS, NV, NH, NJ, NM, NY, NC, OH, OR, SD, UT, WA, and WY).
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