N.H. Not Making the Grade on Drunk Driving, Report says
WASHINGTON, Nov. 21, 2002–New Hampshire continues to fall short on making the grade when it comes to drunk driving, and underage drinking may be significantly contributing to the problem, according to “Rating the States,” a report released Thursday by Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD).
Of the 142-traffic crash deaths in New Hampshire last year 70 were alcohol-related, and 28.7 percent of under-age drivers involved in fatal crashes in the state from 1999-2001 were alcohol-positive, the report said. Nationally under-age drivers represented 24.1 percent of alcohol-positive traffic deaths in 1999-2001.
“Drunk driving continues to be the most frequently committed violent crime,” Wendy J. Hamilton, MADD national president, said at a press conference Thursday. “Alcohol is still the number one youth drug problem. We are losing ground in the war on drunk driving and under-age drinking.”
Additionally, although it is illegal for vendors to sell alcohol to minors in New Hampshire, the state is one of only five states where it is not illegal for youths to purchase alcohol.
“We need to go after both,” said Jim Fell, a Northeast spokesman for MADD and a member of the group’s national board. “You have to go after the youth to make sure they don’t attempt to purchase, and you also need to go after the retailers to make sure they don’t sell.”
In the report, New Hampshire, along with seven other states, received a grade of C-. The national grade was C, and only eight states received a grade of D+ or lower. New Hampshire also received a C- on the last “Rating the States” report, released in 2000.
While New Hampshire received grades of C- or above on six of MADD’s eight categories, it received an F in both the fatality trends and under-age drinking and driving categories because of the number of under-age alcohol-related traffic deaths as well as a 24.8 percent increase in alcohol-positive fatal crashes in 1999-2001 over the previous three-year period.
The report graded states on criteria ranging from a review of alcohol-related fatality trends to political leadership gave each a numerical grade and then averaged them to determine an overall letter grade.
Data for the report were gathered from federal sources, including the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), and from a questionnaire completed by each state’s MADD office, each governor’s highway safety representative and other agencies, Fell said.
In addition, New Hampshire is the only state that does not have a seatbelt use law for people 18 and older. Fell said there 18 states have primary enforcement of a seatbelt law, meaning a person can be pulled over for not wearing a seatbelt. New Hampshire is the only state that doesn’t use secondary enforcement, meaning that if a car is stopped for another infraction, its occupants can also be cited for not wearing seatbelts.
“New Hampshire is the only state that doesn’t have a law that says you’re supposed to wear your seatbelt,” Fell said. “Every other state has such a law. That’s why we say that New Hampshire needs to pass a seatbelt law.”
A primary enforcement seat belt law, Fell said, would increase seatbelt use by 12 to 15 percent. While 70 percent of the nation’s front-seat passengers currently use seat belts, Fell added, this could be boosted to 85 percent with primary enforcement.
“If you do that, that’s your best protection against drunk drivers, obviously,” Fell said. “Innocent people will be saved but, also, as you get up to that 85 percent you’re hitting high-risk drivers, drinking drivers, people who don’t really care about safety, and they’re beginning to buckle up, so you’re actually saving their lives too.”
Peter Thomson, coordinator for the New Hampshire Highway Safety Agency, disputed the NHTSA numbers released in the MADD report and said his office showed only 46 alcohol-related traffic deaths for the year 2001. Thomson added that traffic fatalities are tested at a 0.04 level, the same level that the federal government uses to test truck drivers, to determine if they are alcohol-related.
Fell said the NHTSA numbers are based on testing blood alcohol levels at 0.01. He said that the 0.01 level is “not a fair way” to test if someone is drunk, but that the test works to determine if a crash is alcohol-related.
He added that New Hampshire tests 83 percent of fatally injured people for their blood alcohol levels, while the NHTSA uses an estimation to determine how many of the other 17 percent of drivers were part of an alcohol-related crash, also accounting for the difference in statistics.
Fell said that the next step following the release of the report is to work on issues at the state and local levels.
“The national level is fine and well; we need the leadership there,” Fell said. “But really drunk driving is really won at the local and community level, and we’re hoping our MADD chapter in New Hampshire will take the ball now and carry it to the governor and the legislature and try to get these things fixed.”
Published in The Keene Sentinel, in New Hampshire.
