Overview

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), for one of every 210 miles driven in Kentucky in 2000, a person with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) >.08 sat behind the wheel. The severity of alcohol related crashes is higher than many other types of crashes. NHTSA estimates that alcohol is a factor in 30% of Kentucky’s crash costs, and alcohol-related crashes account for an estimated 18% of Kentucky’s auto insurance payments.

From 2000-2004, a total of 29,033 crashes were recorded as alcohol related, which resulted into 954 deaths and 19,482 injuries. In 2003, 30% of all fatalities were alcohol related, which increased to 32% in 2004. Alcohol related fatalities in 2003 were 0.59 per 100 million vehicle miles of travel, which was equal to the national average. However, in 2004 Kentucky’s fatality rate increased to 0.65.

Emphasis Area Goal

Substantially reduce the number of impaired driving crashes on Kentucky roadways thorough a partnership with public and private agencies.

Strategies

• Adopt drug evaluation and classification program (also referred to as Drug Recognition Expert Program).
• Implement cross-education of prosecutors/law enforcement in DUI procedures that involve standard field sobriety testing, DRE testimony and probable cause testimony.
• Coordinate state/local checkpoints.
• Implement data driven impaired driving enforcement.
• Coordinate with media.
• Lower BAC from 0.18 to 0.15 for DUI offenders to receive additional penalties that include a 1 year suspension of a driver’s license.
• Implement Administrative License Revocation (ALR) for individuals who operate motor vehicles while under the influence of alcohol determined by chemical testing.
• Implement keg registration legislation that requires beer kegs to be tagged with id tags with purchaser’s name, address and location where keg is used.
• Implement social host legislation that imposes liability on social hosts who allow minors to consume alcohol.
• Impose mandatory server training to curb underage purchases of alcohol and also curb over-service of alcohol to persons who are intoxicated.

Performance Measures

• Number of injury/fatal/total crashes involving impaired driving
• Number of impaired driving arrests
• Number of driving licenses suspended
• Recidivism rate
• Number of prosecutors/law enforcement officers educated
• Number of times legislative bills are introduced