Georgia's DUI death rate at two-decade low

ATLANTA - Georgia&#39;s drunken driving death rate is at a two-decade low after years of steady decline, according to a study released Wednesday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. <br> <br> The state&#39;s drunken driving death rate has remained consistently at or below the national rate since 1990. Last year, its rate of .52 deaths per 100 million vehicle miles driven fell below the national rate of .63, tying Georgia with Iowa and Washington for the 12th lowest drunken driving death rate in the nation. <br> <br> ``It&#39;s a time when we haven&#39;t seen great improvement in alcohol fatality numbers. The numbers have not been encouraging,&#39;&#39; said Joseph Carra, director of the National Center of Statistics and Analysis, an office of the NHTSA. ``Georgia&#39;s among those that have done better than the nation as a whole.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Since 1997, Georgia&#39;s rate has improved by 16 percent, compared to nationwide improvement of only 3 percent. Overall, the state&#39;s rate has improved 66 percent since 1982, when the NHTSA first began the annual study. <br> <br> ``It is a combo of increased education and awareness through campaigns,&#39;&#39; said Christopher Noe, executive director of Mothers Against Drunk Driving&#39;s Georgia branch. ``We&#39;ve done well in areas of putting laws in effect in Georgia&#39;s books.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Noe noted the state&#39;s big legislative victories, instituting 27 of 37 key laws advocated by MADD. Last year, Georgia changed its drunken driving law to lower the blood alcohol threshold from .10 down to .08. <br> <br> MADD&#39;s priorities in the next legislative session include stricter penalties on repeat drunken driving offenders and tighter regulations on alcohol vendors, Noe said. <br> <br> State officials have also credited a recent crackdown on drunken driving for the lower rate. In June, the state launched a special program called Highway Enforcement of Aggressive Traffic, or HEAT, to curb drunken and aggressive driving in the metro Atlanta area, which has the highest drunken driving deaths in 2001. <br> <br> Fulton and DeKalb counties led the state with about 40 fatalities each, while Gwinnett, Cobb and Chatham counties also posted high numbers. Statewide, there were a total of 557 drunken driving deaths last year.