APRI Highlights - Spring 2002

National Traffic Law Center

Marcia Cunningham, Acting Director

Over the last few months, the National Traffic Law Center (NTLC) has participated in several national-level meetings attended by a cross-section of stakeholders with an interest in impaired driving issues. A central focus of these meetings was the recent increase in alcohol-related fatalities—up from 15,976 in 1999 to 16,653 in 2000.

The National Commission Against Drunk Driving hosted its two-day annual conference in Washington, D.C. during the last week of November. U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta and Administrator Dr. Jeffrey Runge, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), were keynote speakers. Both reiterated the federal government’s commitment to fighting the war on impaired driving, especially in light of the disturbing rise in alcohol-related fatalities.

Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) sponsored a conference January 24-26 in Scottsdale, AZ, as part of that organization’s efforts to reinvigorate the fight against impaired driving. Dr. Runge was again a keynote speaker. A nationally recognized physician expert in motor vehicle injury care and prevention, Dr. Runge spoke of impaired driving as a communicable disease that wreaks havoc among those it affects. Noting that 59 percent of the alcohol-related fatalities in 2000 occurred in rural areas, Dr. Runge suggested re-thinking our countermeasures in the fight against impaired driving. Concluding his remarks with a list of “Great Ideas,” he included the need for prosecutor training.

In her presentation at the MADD conference, NTLC’s acting director addressed the continuing need for education at all levels—the public, to help them better understand the nature and scope of the problem; law enforcement, to enable them to make arrests where appropriate and to properly articulate the facts in court; and prosecutors, to support them in presenting evidence effectively in court and countering defense attempts to discredit the evidence.

NTLC’s acting director also attended a two-day conference at NHTSA’s headquarters in Washington, D.C., on January 29-30. The discussion centered on what is working and what still needs to be done to decrease alcohol-related fatalities and injuries on our nation’s roadways. In their remarks, NTLC’s acting director and Paula Wulff, the National Association of Prosecutor Coordinators’ program manager, cited the huge disparity in funding allotted annually to law enforcement (millions), while less than one-half million dollars are allocated to training the prosecutors who handle these cases. They also stressed the essential role prosecutors play in impaired driving cases, and particularly the importance of the law enforcement/prosecutor relationship.

To contact APRI’s National Traffic Law Center, please call us at (703) 549-4253 or e-mail us at trafficlaw@ndaa-apri.org. Our web address is http://www.ndaa-apri.org/apri/programs/traffic/index.html.