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Saving Lives Through Reducing Impaired Driving in Louisiana

Drunk driving in Louisiana and across the nation is a persistent problem despite stiffened laws and increased enforcement and education efforts. In 2009, alcohol-related crashes in Louisiana claimed more than 400 lives and resulted in more than 6,000 injuries. Forty-nine percent of the deaths on Louisiana roads in 2009 were alcohol-related, substantially higher than the national average of 37 percent. 

To save lives, the Louisiana Highway Safety Commission sponsors numerous enforcement programs, outreach campaigns and advertisements across the state. The Commission provides overtime grants to State Police and local enforcement agencies to conduct special DWI patrols and sobriety checkpoints throughout the year with a concentration on holiday periods.

The Commission also promotes initiatives, such as the “No Refusal” program, whereby arresting officers receive judicial authority to perform tests on DWI suspects who refuse to take a breath alcohol concentration exam during the arrest. Such tests are important evidence used to win convictions of drivers arrested on DWI charges. >/span>

 

Some 20,000 people are arrested annually on DWI charges in Louisiana. The Commission, Louisiana Legislature and others have taken numerous steps to remove drunk drivers from the state’s roads. The Legislature has passed a number of laws that toughen DWI penalties, especially for repeat offenders. One such law requires people  arrested for DWI to install ignition interlock devices in their vehicles if they want to obtain a hardship drivers license. An ignition interlock prevents a person who has consumed alcohol from being able to start a vehicle in which such a device is installed.

These efforts could be having an impact. The number of alcohol-related deaths on Louisiana’s highways decreased 17 percent from 2007 to 2009. Although the number of alcohol-related deaths is still high, it is important that these numbers are improving.   The Commission constantly embarks on new efforts aimed at reducing drunk driving. Recent programs have included funding of special “drug courts” in various communities to handle DWI cases and training of officers on how to make a DWI arrest that will stand up in court.   Most drivers in Louisiana are law-abiding citizens who do not drive with intoxicated. The Commission’s efforts are aimed at convincing all drivers to remain sober and to provide training and resources that help law enforcement officers, prosecutors and others do their jobs regarding drunken driving.

Jaimie Ainsworth is the Program Coordinator II for the Louisiana Highway Safety Commission and a speaker at the Louisiana Governor's Safety & Health Conference and the Safe Communities - Greater Baton Rouge Area's Traffic Safety Summit.

 

 

 

 

 

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