DAVE SWANN / DSWANN@STARBULLETIN.COM

The alcohol factor

Of the 161 people who died on Hawaii roadways last year, 84 of them were involved in alcohol-related crashes

Hawaii tops all 50 states in the percentage of traffic deaths involving alcohol, based on statistics for 2006, a government agency reports.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said that of the 161 people who died on Hawaii roadways last year, 52 percent, or 84, were in alcohol-related crashes. Those numbers were up from 2005.

The increase occurred in spite of the $1.1 million spent last year by the state on education campaigns and grants to county police departments for tougher enforcement.

The NHTSA defines alcohol-related fatalities as those that occur in crashes involving at least one driver, pedestrian or cyclist who had any amount of alcohol in his or her blood.

By contrast, drunken-driving fatalities are those in which one of the people involved in the crash has a blood alcohol level higher than 0.08 percent. In 2006 there were 63 drunken-driving fatalities in Hawaii, or 39 percent of traffic fatalities. Only Wisconsin, South Carolina and Montana had higher percentages.

FULL STORY »

Of the 161 people who died on Hawaii roadways last year, 84 of them were in alcohol-related crashes, according to statistics released by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

That represents 52 percent of all traffic fatalities in Hawaii in 2006, the highest percentage among all states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico.

Hawaii's 2005 numbers were 140 fatalities, with 72 of them alcohol-related, for 51 percent.

"We don't have an exact answer as to why there's an increase," said Leah Marks, executive director of Mothers Against Drunk Driving-Hawaii chapter.

The state spent $1.1 million last year on education campaigns and grants to county police departments for enforcement, said Scott Ishikawa, state Department of Transportation spokesman. That is about the same amount it spends every year, Ishikawa said.

The Honolulu Police Department has been stepping up enforcement and making more DUI arrests every year, said Assistant Police Chief Bryan Wauke.

As of July 7, HPD made 2,264 DUI arrests, compared with 1,936 for the same period last year.

Oahu had 90, or more than half of all the traffic fatalities in the state, last year, Wauke said. But only 31 of them were alcohol-related, he said.

The NHTSA defines alcohol-related fatalities as those that occur in crashes involving at least one driver, pedestrian or cyclist who had any amount of alcohol in his blood. Drunken-driving fatalities are those in which one of the people involved in the crash has a blood alcohol level higher than 0.08 percent.

In 2006 there were 63 drunken-driving fatalities in Hawaii, or 39 percent of traffic fatalities. Only Wisconsin, South Carolina and Montana had higher percentages.

The percentage of people who died in drunken-driving crashes in Hawaii in 2005 was the same as in last year.

"We think it continues to happen because people are allowed to drive impaired," Marks said.

MADD has joined state and county transportation officials in pushing for a state law that allows a judge to order the installation of an ignition interlock, or breathalyzer, in vehicles of drivers convicted of DUI that prevents them starting their vehicles if they are drunk.

Nationwide the number of traffic fatalities dropped in 2006 to 42,642 from 43,510 in 2005. The number of drunken-driving deaths also went down, but the number and percentage of fatalities that were alcohol-related went up.