Passenger DUI decreased drunk driving by 41%

Think drunk driving laws are tough in Kentucky, well their nothing compared to the laws in Japan.  According to Reuters News, a new Japanese law makes it a crime to be a passenger in a car with a drunk driver. 

Reuters also reports "Passengers riding with a drunk behind the wheel can be fined up to $5,000 and face up to three years in prison for not stopping the crime from taking place. Also, anyone who lends their car to a drunk is criminally responsible."

Then comes the hard part. Japanese drunken drivers face up to five years in prison on a first offense. (Japan has lower penalties of up to three years and $2,650 for drivers deemed impaired rather than intoxicated.)

Japan is a hard-drinking culture. So what makes a Japanese driver impaired? A blood alcohol level of .03 - about one beer.

No surprise, drunken driving declined 41 percent in 2007 in Japan. Despite this huge dent in the numbers, the harsher laws took effect only in September.

According to statistics from the U.S. Department of Transportation, 39 percent of all fatal motor vehicle accidents in 2004 were alcohol related and 9 percent of all injury accidents were alcohol related. In total, approximately 248,000 people were injured and 16,694 people were killed in alcohol-related auto accidents. 

Kentucky's incidence of alcohol related fatalities is higher than the national average.  Below is a summary of Kentucky alcohol related automobile accident fatalities from 1982-2005 as published by the US Dept. of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Year	Fatalities
	Tot	Alc-Rel	%	0.08+	%
1982	822	482	59	401	49
1983	778	435	56	390	50
1984	754	389	52	333	44
1985	712	343	48	305	43
1986	805	398	49	347	43
1987	844	407	48	351	42
1988	838	411	49	355	42
1989	772	341	44	285	37
1990	849	371	44	320	38
1991	826	380	46	328	40
1992	815	333	41	292	36
1993	871	338	39	291	33
1994	778	309	40	246	32
1995	849	302	36	262	31
1996	842	317	38	275	33
1997	857	301	35	266	31
1998	858	306	36	261	30
1999	814	300	37	264	32
2000	820	280	34	237	29
2001	845	251	30	218	26
2002	915	302	33	263	29
2003	928	276	30	240	26
2004	964	308	32	269	28
2005	985	313	32	267	27

Maybe it's time we tried something different.

Hans Poppe