California has seen a sharp increase in drunk driving fatalities over the last eight years. The Automobile Club of Southern California has come up with a couple of possible explanations. KPBS Reporter Kenny Goldberg has the story.
Between 1998 and 2005, there was a 41 percent increase in alcohol-related crash deaths in the state.
Marie Montgomery is with the Auto Club of Southern California. She says during that same time period, there was a big spike in the number of crashes caused by aggressive driving.
Montgomery: That would be excessive speed, following too closely as the primary causes of the crashes. And those types of crashes went up 55 percent between 1998 and 2005.
Montgomery says there could be another reason for the increase in DUI fatalities. She suggests after 25 years of telling people not to drink and drive, the message may no longer be getting through.
Kenny Goldberg, KPBS News.
