ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, December 27, 1994                   TAG: 9412280008
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 8   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DON COLBURN THE WASHINGTON POST
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

DRUNKEN DRIVING DIPS, BUT YOUNG STILL DYING

Drunken driving appears to have declined in the past decade, but it still takes a huge toll in mainly young lives, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports.

More than 40,000 Americans died in traffic accidents last year. Alcohol was involved in more than 17,000 of those fatalities. About one of every 100 licensed drivers was arrested in 1992 for driving while impaired.

Motor vehicle crashes remain the leading cause of death for Americans under 35.

CDC defines an alcohol-related traffic fatality as a death in which either a driver, a pedestrian or a bicyclist had a blood alcohol level of at least .01 grams per decaliter - the point where booze can impair driving. The legal limit for intoxication is higher - a blood alcohol level of at least 0.1 in most states for adults. Twenty-nine states have tougher limits for drivers under 21.

The number of alcohol-related traffic deaths in the United States declined 31 percent from 25,165 in 1982 to 17,461 last year, CDC found. They accounted for more than half - 57 percent - of all traffic fatalities in 1982 but 44 percent last year.

The CDC report attributed the decline to several factors, including the increasing social unacceptability of drunken driving, tighter blood alcohol limits defining intoxication, tougher enforcement of state laws against drunken driving, a rise in the minimum drinking age to 21, greater use of safety belts and decreased per capita alcohol consumption.

Since 1982, the percentage of traffic fatalities involving alcohol has declined in every state except Idaho, Louisiana and Missouri.

CDC also looked at how many drivers in fatal crashes had blood alcohol levels above .01. Last year, it ranged from a low of 15 percent in Maryland to a high of 43 percent in Montana.

The still-devastating toll in injuries and deaths from drunken driving, CDC said, ``underscores the need for additional and intensified efforts by traffic safety, public health, law enforcement, judicial and citizen activist organizations.'' 


 by CNB