Foreword
Over the last decade, changing attitudes and stiffer laws have reduced alcohol-related traffic fatalities by nearly 30 percent — from 24,045 in 1986 to 17,126 in 1996, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Yet from 1994 to 1995, fatalities rose by 4 percent, NHTSA reports, suggesting that progress in combatting the drunk driving problem may have stopped. In any case, drunk driving continues to take a huge human and financial toll: In 1996, 41 percent of some 42,000 traffic deaths were alcohol-related, with each fatality estimated by NHTSA to cost society $950,000.States laws use blood-alcohol concentration (BAC)…
