Why are DUI and DWI laws vigorously enforced?

There are tremendous pressures to "do something." In 1997, according to the United States Department of Transportation, 38.6% of all traffic deaths were alcohol-related -- a total of 16,189 alcohol-related traffic deaths. (Fifteen years earlier, in 1982, alcohol-related deaths represented 57.3% of that year's 43,945 total traffic fatalities.)In addition, a study done by the National Highway Safety Administration reported that the risk of a driver with a 0.10% blood alcohol content (BAC) being in fatal accident is many times greater than a driver with a 0.08% BAC.Despite the fact that drivers are legally drunk at 0.08%, the head of the Montana State Police stated that the average driver arrested for a DUI in Montana has a 0.17% BAC. Thus most of those arrested for a DUI or DWI are way over the line.