U.S.

Alcohol-Related Deaths Plunge

September 3, 1999 / 12:54 PM EDT / CBS/AP

The heavily traveled Labor Day weekend began with encouraging news about alcohol-related crash fatalities: The goverment reports that the number of such deaths has dropped to its lowest level in 17 years.

There were 15,935 alcohol-related traffic deaths in 1998, down 1.5 percent from 16,189 the year before, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said. The 1998 figures are the lowest in all the 17 years the government has kept such statistics.

Alcohol-related traffic fatalities accounted for 38.4 percent of the 41,471 highway deaths nationwide last year. The figure was 38.5 percent in 1997.

The rate of young people killed in alcohol-related crashes also dropped to nine per 100,000 in 1998, from 10 per 100,000 the year before, President Clinton said in radio remarks Thursday.

"But even one child killed because of drunk driving is too many," Mr. Clinton said.

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Dr. Ricardo Martinez, an emergency room doctor who heads the NHTSA, released the figures at a news conference sponsored by Mothrs Against Drunk Driving, which urged motorists not to drink and drive over the holiday weekend.

MADD president Karolyn Nunnallee said the National Safety Council is predicting that 468 people are likely to die on the nation's highways this weekend, and about 53 percent of those deaths are expected to be alcohol-related.

"We are here because we refuse to accept this death count prediction as a matter of fact or fate," Mrs. Nunnallee said. "We are here with a mission ... to see that everyone returns home safely from this long holiday weekend."

During last year's Labor Day weekend, 464 people were killed and 50 percent of those were alcohol-related.

Texas had the most alcohol-related traffic deaths last year with 1,792, followed by California at 1,324.

The highest percentage was in Washington, D.C., where half of the 54 traffic deaths came in alcohol-related crashes. Utah had the lowest rate; there were 50 alcohol-related traffic deaths last year or 14.4 percent of its 350 fatalities.