Driving Study Focuses On Ethnicity

Drunken driving fatalities are dropping steadily nationwide, but not as quickly for Native Americans and some Hispanic Americans as for other ethnic groups, a study has found.

The study, commissioned by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and unveiled Monday at a forum in Miami on traffic safety issues among minorities, showed that from 1990 through 1994, alcohol-related fatalities among Native Americans dropped just 4 percent and among Mexican Americans by 6 percent.

Over the same period, drunken driving deaths declined 10 percent among African Americans and 9 percent among whites.

The research marks the first ethnic-specific study of impaired driving and seat belt use nationwide.

The forum is aimed at finding new ways to reach ethnic minority groups about traffic safety issues and examining whether some motor vehicle laws, such as seat belt enforcement, result in more police harassment of minorities.

“Our purpose in pulling all this information and all these people together is not to reinforce stereotypes but to reach out,” said Karolyn Nunnallee, national president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

“Drunk driving is a major national issue, but we need to address communities differently and formulate a message in the most sensitive way possible,” she said.