By: Michael L. Prince, Director., Office of Highway Safety Planning
With successful progress on safety belt
use placing Michigan among the highest
belt use states in the nation, drunk
driving will find itself as the top priority
for OHSP in 2009.
Between 2003 and 2007, 1,636 people
were killed in Michigan in crashes
involving a drunk driver with a BAC
of .08 or higher and countless more
received permanent, life altering and
disabling injuries. In fact, since 1994,
the Fatal Accident Reporting System
(FARS) reports that fatalities involving
.08 BAC drivers and above has not
dropped below the 300 mark. While
2007 was a fourteen year low in drunk
driving fatalities, Michigan can do
better.
Our approach will be simple and
straightforward and involve several key
components including the following:
High-Visibility Enforcement - According
to Heidi Coleman of the National
Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s
Impaired Driving Division, “The purpose
of high-visibility enforcement is to create
general deterrence by increasing the
perceived risk of arrest. The object is
to convince people not to drive impaired
in the first place.”
Through funding support from OHSP,
we intend to create a climate where
strict enforcement of Michigan’s drunk
driving law is not only recognized
by the general public, but sends the
message that if you want to try driving
drunk, don’t do it in Michigan. Fiftyfive
counties covering over 90 percent
of the state’s population will receive
supplemental federal funds to support
an aggressive overtime enforcement
program, including two statewide drunk
driving crackdowns over the July 4 and
Labor Day holidays when crash data
shows the problem is the most evident.
As a non-checkpoint state, we will
employ the use of innovative strategies
to raise the visibility of enforcement
and to field the most well-trained and
best-equipped police officers in the
nation when it comes to drunk driving
enforcement.
Underage Drinking Prevention and
Enforcement – OHSP will invest over
$1.8 million in strategies to prevent and
enforce violations of Michigan’s under
21 drinking law. Efforts will include
the funding of compliance checks and
“Party Patrol” by state, county, and local
law enforcement, training, equipment,
and earned media support. In addition,
a new publicity campaign to provide
increased visibility to enforcement
efforts in currently in the works.
Paid/Earned Media – To heighten the
visibility of our enforcement efforts,
OHSP will fund the production of the
finest and most effective television and
radio advertisements in the country.
Working in close partnership with
experts in the marketing field, we will
strategically target
those that ar e
mos t l i kel y t o
violate the law with
attention grabbing
ads to drive the
message home.
These efforts will
be complimented by earned or free
media strategies and outreach to
supplement messaging to the motoring
public.
Sobriety Courts – Having the most
effective enforcement program in the
country is useless unless there are
efforts to provide intensive supervision
and treatment of convicted drunk drivers
to keep them from offending again.
As part of this effort, OHSP will invest
$300,000 in federal traffic safety funds
to establish seven new sobriety courts
in Michigan. Michigan is one of the
leading states in the nation in the use of
sobriety courts, a strategy that is proven
to be effective in reducing drunk driving
recidivism.
Forensic Laboratory Support – With
the passage of the .08 BAC law in
2003, and the inclusion of a provision
for Schedule 1 drugs, the demand for
Toxicology Services from the State Police
Forensic Science Division skyrocketed.
OHSP will provide funding support in
expedite the testing of blood samples
from suspected drunk drivers so that
prosecutors can quickly and efficiently
prosecute offenders.
While these are some of the more highprofile
projects OHSP will be funding
in 2009 to address the drunk driving
problem, there will be others including
technical assistance and continuing
education for prosecutors and courts,
recognition for law enforcement and
prosecutors, and prevention programs
for high school and college age students
to help maintain programs supporting
cultures with non-drinking social
norms.
While there are many traffic safety
challenges that we will address in 2009
and beyond, drunk driving is the most
prevalent and the
most preventable
problem we
face. Dramatic
reductions in drunk driving fatalities will
be one of the
greatest traffic safety challenges of our
lifetime and require our collective focus
and commitment.
Rest assured that Michigan’s traffic
safety community is up to the task.
Editor’s Note: This article was originally
published in the January 2009 edition of
the Office of Highway Safety Planning’s
Safety Network News.
Editor’s Note: This article was originally
published in the January 2009 edition of
the Office of Highway Safety Planning’s
Safety Network News.
