Checkpoint Strikeforce Unites Region in Combating Drunk Driving

Campaign Focused on Halting Rise in D.C. Metro Drunk Driving Fatalities

New Poll Demonstrates Public's Concern About Drunk Driving, Support for Sobriety Checkpoints

WASHINGTON, July 22 -- At an actual sobriety checkpoint, agencies from across the region joined in kicking off the Checkpoint Strikeforce sobriety checkpoint and public awareness campaign to reverse the recent-years' trend of increased drunk driving fatalities in the greater Washington, D.C. area. Chief Charles Ramsey of Washington, D.C.'s Metropolitan Police Department and Chief Fred Keeney, President of the Maryland Association of Chiefs of Police outlined the cross-regional Checkpoint Strikeforce campaign. Throughout the remainder of 2005, the campaign is employing resonant ads in a robust ($394,225) paid media effort to remind citizens of the many dangers and consequences of impaired driving. Law enforcement agencies are deploying a network of sobriety checkpoints, effectively erasing jurisdictional borders with this key tool to fight drunk driving. The campaign is supported by a grant from the District of Columbia Department of Transportation, Maryland Highway Safety Office and Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles.

Alarming casualty figures demonstrate that drunk driving in the greater Washington, D.C. area is a growing menace. In 2003, the latest year for which regional data is available, drunk driving took the lives of 122 individuals in the Northern Virginia/suburban Maryland/Washington, D.C. area -- a 56 percent increase since 1998. What's more, alcohol-related fatalities have increased for five consecutive years. These numbers are proof positive that the local fight against drunk driving is far from won. (Source: Metropolitan Washington Council of Government's "How Safe Are Our Roads?" report (http://www.wrap.org/highwaysafety04.pdf) prepared for the Washington Regional Alcohol Program).

"When you combine the public education campaign and regional law enforcement efforts, Checkpoint Strikeforce becomes a very powerful tool in reducing drunk driving," said Chief Charles Ramsey of the Metropolitan Police Department. "In the District of Columbia and across all borders throughout our region, the message is as simple as it is serious: If you drink and drive, you WILL get caught."

A July 2005 public opinion survey of Washington, D.C., Maryland and Northern Virginia area drivers conducted for Checkpoint Strikeforce, by the District-based MWR Strategies, found that over half of the greater Washington area's drivers perceive drunk drivers as a dangerous threat with 59% saying drunk drivers are among the most serious dangers they face on the road. Sobriety checkpoints are also strongly supported with nearly nine out of ten (87%) drivers supporting the anti-DUI initiative.

Studies show that sobriety checkpoints can reduce alcohol-related crashes by as much as 20 percent. Using sobriety checkpoints and patrols, when and where drunk driving is most likely to occur, checkpoints deter motorists from driving under the influence and arrests those who do drink and drive. In 2004 alone, a total of 1,617 people were arrested for driving while impaired during 350 sobriety checkpoints in the District of Columbia, Maryland and Virginia.

Checkpoint Strikeforce's creative radio ads, which will run until the end of the year, are designed specifically to hit home with the target audience of 21-to-35-year-old males -- a hard-to-reach audience that is statistically most at risk for drunk driving. Of all fatal crashes, drivers in this age group have the highest incidence of intoxication -- approaching double the rate of teenagers and drivers 45 and older. (Source: NHTSA)

The radio ads will be played at 23 stations across the region in the following four markets: Washington metro, Baltimore, Hagerstown and Salisbury. The radio ads will also be played during live broadcasts of the Redskins and Ravens football games.

Listen to the ads and get more information at http://www.wrap.org/.