Source: mlive.com

We intended to take this opportunity to acknowledge some progress in the ongoing war against drinking and driving. And we do just that -- but with a dangerous countertrend so far in 2006.

Last week we noticed a report put out by the Michigan State Police and Office of Highway Safety Planning. Called the 2005 Drunk Driving Audit, the report proclaimed that "Michigan's drunk-driving arrests, convictions and crashes, as well as fatalities and injuries involving alcohol and/or drugs, have decreased for the fourth consecutive year," according to the press release.

Here is a summary of the results of the annual audit: There were 54,056 drunken- and impaired-driving arrests in 2005, a little more than 1,000 fewer than in 2004. Injuries resulting from alcohol and/or drug-related crashes were down 8 percent, from 8,667 in 2004 to 7,892 in 2005. And alcohol or drug-related fatalities were down 2.4 percent, from 418 in 2004 to 408 in 2005.

That would seem to justify some satisfaction -- in the sense that a prolonged downward trend suggests something good is being done. And there are a couple of good reasons the statistics should be going down.

One was the repeat-offender law that took effect in October of 1999. It imposed tougher penalties on repeat offenders: License-plate confiscation, mandatory immobilization of vehicles, forfeiture of vehicles.

Another change was that in 2003 the legal definition of drunken driving was lowered to 0.08 percent blood alcohol content. In effect, it is "easier" to violate the law now than it was.

Thus, the combined effect of those changes should make people think twice -- and more -- before they drink and get behind the wheel. Add to that the ongoing campaigns of various police agencies to patrol the roads for drunken drivers.

With those statutory and enforcement strategies, the statistics should be heading down.

One thing gives us pause, though. The Michigan State Police did a partial-year report on alcohol-related fatalities in both 2005 and 2006. According to the report, by April 30, 2005, the state had 68 alcohol- or drug-related traffic fatalities; at the same point in 2006, there were 99. The percent of all fatal crashes that were alcohol-related edged up from 26.2 percent in 2005 to 33.2 percent in 2006. Fortunately,  statistics are still on a downward trend: In all of last year, the county had seven alcohol- or drug-related fatalities; this year, there have been two.

What do such statistics suggest? Clearly, public policy -- the laws we enact, the enforcement measures we take -- have an impact over the long haul. However, that doesn't mean that our state, county or local law-enforcement agencies can afford to relax their vigilance.