Sobriety Checkpoints are the Wrong Way to Catch Drunk Drivers on Memorial Day

Roving Patrols Are the Best Method for Dealing With All Forms of Negligent Driving

WASHINGTON, May 24 -- As Americans take to the roads this Memorial Day weekend, thousands of responsible adults will be detained and subjected to roadblock campaigns. Today the American Beverage Institute (ABI), representing many of America's family restaurants, called on safety officials to reconsider employing this ineffective method for catching drunk drivers and instead use the most efficient means available for getting drunks, speeders, and distracted drivers off the road: roving police patrols.

The most recent data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) confirms the superior effectiveness of roving patrols. While the nation saw 34 fewer alcohol-related fatalities from 2004 to 2005, a review of the data finds that for the second year in a row, states that focused their resources on roving patrols led the national decline in alcohol- related fatalities.

  Specifically:
  -- The 11 states that do not operate roadblocks experienced 91 fewer
     alcohol-related fatalities collectively in 2005 compared to 2004;
  -- The 39 states (plus the District of Columbia) that operate roadblocks
     saw a collective increase of nearly 60 alcohol-related deaths;
  -- If non-roadblock states are removed from the equation, there would have
     been a net increase in nationwide alcohol-related fatalities last year.

Additionally, a landmark NHTSA study has shown roving patrols to be nearly three times more effective than roadblocks at catching drunk drivers, while a Pennsylvania Department of Transportation official has testified in that state's Supreme Court that roving patrols are ten times more effective.

"We know that roving patrols are the most effective means of getting drunks off our roads, not to mention distracted and speeding drivers," said Sarah Longwell, ABI's spokeswoman, "so why do some states insist on spending tax dollars on manpower and PR to deploy a massive roadblock campaign? These roadblocks target responsible adults who drink legally and responsibly before driving and are all too easily avoided by the repeat offenders and chronic abusers who make up the overwhelming majority of today's drunk driving problem."