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Gore Announces $4.5 Million For NC to Deter Drunk Driving

4 September 1998

Vice President Gore Announces $4.5 Million in Federal Grants For North Carolina to Deter Drunk Driving

    WASHINGTON, Sept. 3 -- Vice President Gore today announced
incentive grants totaling more than $4.5 million to help North Carolina
implement tough programs to combat drunk driving.
    The North Carolina grants will be awarded under provisions of the
Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21), which President
Clinton signed into law June 9 and which authorize more than $700 million in
federal grants to states over the next six years to combat drunk driving.
    "Safety is President Clinton's highest transportation priority, and these
grants are an important step toward preventing alcohol-related traffic crashes
in North Carolina," Vice President Gore said.  "The people of North Carolina
already have taken a tough stance against drinking and driving, and we could
save even more lives by passing a tough national standard of impaired driving
at .08 blood alcohol concentration -- and I continue to challenge the Congress
to enact this life saving measure."
    North Carolina will receive $3.9 million under the new Section 163
program.  The section authorizes $500 million in federal grants to states over
six as incentives to enact and enforce laws that make it a drunk driving
offense per se to operate a motor vehicle with a blood alcohol concentration
(BAC) of .08 or greater.  To qualify for Section 163 grant funds in fiscal
1998, states must have enacted and be enforcing a ".08 BAC per se law" by
Sept. 30, 1998.  North Carolina enacted such a law which was effective in
October 1993.
    The remaining $635,000 the state will receive is under the Section 410
incentive grant program to help North Carolina deter drunk driving.  The
program, which encourages states to enact and enforce other programs that
deter drinking and driving, was extended and expanded by TEA-21.  TEA-21
authorizes a total of $219.5 million, $34.5 million of it this year, in
Section 410 grants to states over six years, the highest level that the
Section 410 program has ever received.  Before the TEA-21 reauthorization of
the Section 410 program, states had been provided $150 million under the
program from fiscal 1992 to 1997.
    "A strong message and tough state laws are bringing about an important
change in society's attitude toward drunk driving, but we must continue our
efforts to reduce the numbers of these crashes and the tragedies associated
with them," said U.S. Transportation Secretary Rodney E. Slater.
    In 1997, there were 1,483 people killed in traffic crashes on North
Carolina streets and highways of which 35.6 percent were alcohol-related. More
than 500 people died in those alcohol-related crashes.  The annual percentage
of alcohol-related traffic fatalities in the United States dropped to an
historic low in 1997.  It was the first time since record-keeping began in
1975 that alcohol-related traffic deaths dropped below 40 percent of the
total.
    The grants will be awarded by the U.S. Department of Transportation's
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Federal Highway
Administration.
    The U.S. Department of Transportation's Web site is
http://www.dot.gov/briefing.htm.