Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 107 Part 3.djvu/43

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PUBLIC LAW 103-168—DEC. 2, 1993 107 STAT. 1981 Public Law 103-168 103d Congress Joint Resolution Designating December 1993 as "National Drunk and Drugged Driving Dec. 2, 1993 Prevention Month". [S.J. Res. 122] Whereas impaired driving is the most frequently committed violent crime in the United States; Whereas last year 45 percent of those who died on our Nation's highways were the result of alcohol involved crashes; Whereas last year nearly eighteen thousand people were killed and one million two hundred thousand were injured in crashes involving alcohol; Whereas impaired driving continues to cost society some $46,000,000,000 each year in direct costs; Whereas medical costs associated with impaired driving run approximately $5,500,000,000 a year; Whereas injury and property damage resulting from impaired driving cause pnysical, emotional, and economic hardship for hundreds of thousands of adults and young people; Whereas the ongoing work of citizen activists groups such as Mothers Against Druri Driving (MADD), Students Against Driving Drunk (SADD), Remove Intoxicated Drivers (RID), and the National Commission Against Drunk Driving continue to promote good prevention efforts which have contributed to a 30 percent reduction in alcohol-related traffic deaths over the past decade; Whereas a decade of intense public education effort has proved that alcohol-related highway crashes are not accidents and can be prevented; Whereas comprehensive community-based strategies to further reduce and prevent impaired driving tragedies are known to be effective; Whereas an increased public awareness of the gravity of the problem of drunk and drugged driving may help to sustain efforts to develop comprehensive solutions at the State and local levels; Whereas more than seventy public and private sector organizations have joined together to carry out a nationwide public information, education, and enforcement campaign during the December holiday season; Whereas the Secretary of Transportation has set a goal by the year 1997 to reduce alcohol-related fatalities to 43 percent and MADD has set a goal by the year 2000 to reduce alcohol-related traffic fatalities to 40 percent; Whereas the Secretary of Health and Human Services has set a goal by the year 2000 for all fifty States to prohibit any allowable blood-alcohol concentration tolerance level for drivers younger than age twenty-one; and