Significant Drop in DUI Fatalities Over Labor Day Weekend

The California Highway Patrol has reported that the number of traffic deaths over the Labor Day weekend dropped sharply since last year. The California Highway Patrol is attributing this drop in DUI related fatalities to an increase in police crackdown as part of the regional AVOID DUI Campaign conducted this past weekend. U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters stated prior to the long weekend that the U.S. Department of Transportation had earmarked thirteen million dollars for advertising Labor Day weekend in order to deliver the message, "Drunk Driving. Over the Limit. Under Arrest."

While the number of DUI related fatalities dropped fifty percent since last years' Labor Day weekend, decreasing from forty six deaths across California to twenty three, the number of driving under the influence arrests increased slightly. As of midnight, Sunday, August 31, California Highway Patrol officers had arrested one thousand four hundred and sixteen drivers statewide for driving under the influence of either drugs or alcohol, compared to last year where at the end of the long weekend, one thousand four hundred and six people had been arrested. In the Bay Area, three hundred and seventy seven arrests were made, which is slightly lower than last year's statistics.

This drop in traffic fatalities has also been identified on a larger scale nationwide, where last week, the new national figures collected by the U.S. Department of Transportation showed a significant drop in the number of DUI related fatalities. U.S. Secretary of Transportation Mary Peters reported that while these statistics are encouraging, the number of DUI related fatalities among motorcyclists is climbing in number.

Secretary Peters provided statistics which revealed that last year, approximately thirteen thousand people were killed in accidents where one of the vehicle operators had been driving with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.8 of higher. The number of DUI related fatalities in 2007 saw nearly a four percent drop in DUI related fatalities since 2006, where thirteen thousand four hundred and ninety one people's lives were claimed.

According to the California Highway Patrol, the successful decrease in the number of DUI related fatalities seen over the holiday weekend has been attributed to increased police activity through DUI checkpoints and Saturation Patrols, in addition to higher gas prices, increased numbers of public education campaigns addressing driving under the influence, and the use of alternative forms of transportation.

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