California praised for its DUI mitigation

WASHINGTON — California can teach Florida a thing or two about getting lethal drunks off the road. Missouri, South Carolina and Texas, too, can learn from California's work, U.S. Department of Transportation investigators think.

It turns out that the Golden State's often-notorious highways are safer than they seem. They can even be a role model.

In a first-of-its-kind study ordered by Congress, Transportation Department investigators have compared how states combat drunken driving. California stands out, from online innovations to the deployment of special drunken-driving task forces.

"Other states do come to us, to see how we do things," Chris Cochran, a spokesman for the California Office of Traffic Safety, said Monday. "We all trade ideas back and forth."

California, for instance, makes it much easier for cities to seek funding, helping to tap the roughly $100 million a year that the federal government provides in grants and other anti-drunken-driving money.

The Department of Transportation's Office of Inspector General further praised California for cleverly targeting areas with higher-than-average rates of impaired driving. The Fresno Police Department, for instance, has won national recognition for a federally assisted campaign that includes weekend traffic checkpoints.

"I get phone calls and e-mails from people from all over the country asking about what we're doing," Sgt. Eric Eide, a Fresno Police Department traffic supervisor, said Monday.

With federal funding, Fresno officers compile information on where collisions occur and swarm those areas with special enforcement efforts. Even when there are no DUI arrests, Eide said, the police presence spurs cautionary water-cooler discussions among drivers.

State-by-state comparisons suggest that California's programs must be doing some good.

In California, 1,719 people died during 2005 in drunken-driving accidents. That was more than any other state. But when the number of drivers and highway miles are taken into account, the state's record looks a lot better. It recorded 0.52 fatalities for every 100 million vehicle miles traveled.

Florida recorded 0.73 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled. Missouri recorded 0.75 fatalities, and South Carolina topped them both with 0.94 deaths.

Behind the numbers are names.