The 9th Annual Maryland Remembers Memorial

Maryland Drunk
Driving Facts

DUI LAW in Maryland, Effective: October 1, 2011.

• Anyone under 21, who violates their alcohol restriction, will have mandatory participation in interlock or face suspension.
• Drivers with a second alcohol conviction of any kind within 5 years will have mandatory participation in interlock or face suspension.
• Court judges may order a person into interlock regardless of reason.
• If assignment to interlock is for violation of under 21 alcohol restriction, second alcohol in 5 years, or assigned by court, the time in interlock is determined by how many times, on or after October 1, 2011 they have been assigned to interlock due to one of these three violations.
• Upon first conviction of 21-902, driver must be notified that with a second conviction within 5 years, they will be required to enroll in interlock.
• All drivers under 21 must be notified that any violation of their alcohol restriction will result in mandatory interlock participation. (Will be in driver manual)
• Criminal sanctions for driving a non-interlock vehicle with an interlock restricted license.

Vital Statistics About Drunk Driving

• In 2010, Maryland's 154 alcohol-related traffic fatalities represented 36 percent of all traffic fatalities.
• From 2009 to 2010, Maryland experienced 4 additional alcohol or drug elated traffic deaths.
• On average, 8,430 impaired driving crashes occur annually on Maryland Roadways.
• 36 percent of impaired driving crashes result in injury.
• Maryland's total number of traffic fatalities has dropped significantly over the past few years (651 total traffic fatalities in 2006 as compared to 488 total traffic fatalities in 2010), however alcohol or drug impaired crashes has not experienced the same downward trend (there were 171 impaired driving fatalities in 2008, 173 in 2009 and 177 in 2010).
• In 2011, over 22,000 arrests were made for DUI in Maryland, averaging 62 arrests per day.

Media & Public
Awareness Component

• Complementing the deployment of sobriety checkpoints is a highly visible, resonant advertising and public awareness effort outlining the consequences of impaired driving.
• A significant effort has been put toward an ad campaign and educational outreach in Maryland. The creative ads were written and produced to connect with the target audience of 21-35 year old males. The ads utilize the findings of the campaign's opinion poll to create messages that hit home with the target audience.

Checkpoint
Strikeforce

• Checkpoint Strikeforce is a research-based, zero-tolerance initiative designed to catch and arrest drunk drivers through the implementation of sobriety checkpoints, and to educate the public about the dangers and consequences of drunk driving.
• Males between the ages of 21 and 35 are the primary target audience. This demographic group is typically harder to reach with public awareness campaigns and statistically at the highest risk for drunk driving.
• That's why Maryland law enforcement agencies will be aggressively enforcing impaired-driving laws during the holiday season � at all times of the day and night.
• The national Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over impaired-driving crackdown is a program organized by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which Maryland supports via its Checkpoint Strikeforce campaign.
• The program combines high-visibility enforcement with heightened public awareness.
• Don't take the risk. Law enforcement officers are on a mission to arrest impaired drivers, get them off the street, save more lives � and make the 2012 effort count. Remember: Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over.

Law Enforcement
Component

• In 2011 in Maryland, Checkpoint Strikeforce checkpoints and saturation patrols resulted in 15,510 motorists were stopped yielding 175 DWI/DUI arrests.
• Law enforcement agencies are planning to conduct at least one sobriety checkpoint or saturation patrol every week throughout Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia. The checkpoint blitz will continue through the end of 2012.
• Sobriety checkpoints are a highly targeted way to fight drunk driving because they are strategically timed when and located where drunk driving is more likely to occur, making them amongst the most effective tools to stop drunk driving.
• Aggressively deployed sobriety checkpoints can result in a 20 percent reduction in alcohol-related crashes.
• Maryland law enforcement will be conducting sobriety checkpoints and intense saturation patrols through New Year's Day.
• Anne Arundel, Baltimore City, Baltimore County, Howard County, Frederick County, Prince George's, and Montgomery Counties, Ocean City and the Maryland State Police are conducting special -holiday enforcement projects called Project SOLO. These operations deploy officers in high-risk zones, based on crash and arrest data, to actively pursue impaired drivers.
• This operation will be active through the New Year.