Drinking, Driving and Death:

At this point it seems axiomatic, that drinking and driving produces wrongful death car and truck crashes. Despite this the prevalence of drunk drivers being involved in deadly crashes is still quite high. http://www.ntsb.gov/alerts/SA_004.pdf

Some of the numbers are staggering. More than 17,000 people were killed on our roadways in 2007 in alcohol-related crashes. Such a crash occurs every half an hour of every day. 53% of alcohol related crash fatalities involve repeat offenders.

Between 1983 and 2007, 220,000 individuals were killed by so-called "hard-core drinking drivers".

So what is to be done? The N.T.S.B. advocates a very stringent law enforcement approach. Greater use of sobriety checkpoints, tougher punishments for repeat offenders and requirements that repeat offenders maintain a zero blood alcohol level are suggested.

Unfortunately, many of these suggestions are in use presently without curtailing drunk driving by individuals who already have lost their licenses, served jail time and gone through various therapeutic regimens.