APRN Looks at Drink Driving in Fairbanks « Ignition Interlock 4 Alaska

APRN Looks at Drink Driving in Fairbanks

January 4, 2008 at 12:56 pm | In ignition interlock | 1 Comment
Tags: Alaska drunk driving, APRN, Fairbanks drunk driving, HB 19, ignition interlock

While Mothers Against Drunk Driving reported that Alaska had the lowest rate of alcohol related traffic deaths in 2006 of all the states, the statisitcs for Fairbanks are not encouraging. Alaska Public Radio examined the particular situation in their story, “Fairbanks Struggles to Keep Drunk Drivers off the Road”. You can listen to the story at the link.

My thoughts are that, once again, it is being clearly demonstrated that Alaska has maxed out the deterrent value of current sanctions and to continue the upward trajectory of increasing highway safety, we must creatively employ other strategies. Alcohol abuse is a complicated social problem and the ignition interlock via HB19 is only one piece in the puzzle to solve it. But is a piece.

The legislative session begins soon. Let’s be sure this piece doesn’t get lost under the metaphorical table and encourage our legislators put it in its proper place!

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Only 20 states and the District of Columbia have laws requiring helmets for all motorcycle riders. Louisiana is the only state to adopt such a law in the past 10 years. The trend has been in the opposite direction, with some states repealing their helmet laws, Adkins said.

Alcohol-related fatalities increased slightly last year. There were 15,121 fatalities involving a driver or motorcycle operator, pedestrian or cyclist with a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.08 or above, compared with 15,102 in 2005. Enforcement of impaired-driving laws will remain a priority for Transportation Department, said NHTSA Administrator Nicole Nason.

“There is a personal story behind these statistics, and for every alcohol-related fatality, the family left behind is shattered forever,” Nason said.

Comment by ignition parts — August 8, 2008 #

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