MADD wants all states to allow sobriety checkpoints

WASHINGTON – The best way to further reduce alcohol-related traffic fatalities is to set up more sobriety checkpoints, especially in the 10 states that currently bar them, Mothers Against Drunk Driving said Wednesday.

“This is a proven, effective strategy,” said MADD President Wendy Hamilton. “It really does have credible scientific backing that proves that it reduces alcohol-related fatalities by 20 percent.”

Increasing the number of sobriety checkpoints and funding for advertising them is the group’s first priority as it approaches its 25th anniversary this year and grapples with leveled-off figures in its mission to stop people from driving while impaired.

Last year in the United States, 17,013 traffic deaths were alcohol-related. That’s 40 percent of the 42,643 traffic deaths logged by the National Traffic Highway Safety Administration, about the same numbers as in recent years.

Concerned that 2003 was “the sixth consecutive year with no discernible progress in reducing alcohol-related crashes and fatalities,” the House and Senate Appropriations committees asked the Transportation Department to do an audit, according to a memo to NTHSA from Debra S. Ritt, the department’s assistant inspector general for surface and maritime programs.

The Supreme Court in 1990 upheld the legality of checkpoints.

Ten states do not allow them, many because their constitutions have not been amended to reflect the court’s decision. MADD listed the 10 states as Idaho, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Oregon, Rhode Island, Texas, Washington, Wisconsin and Wyoming.