DRUNKEN DRIVING LANDS HALF-MILLION IN TROUBLE

Reflecting tougher punishment for those who mix drinking and driving,more
than half a million motorists were on probation or behind bars for driving
while intoxicated in 1997, almost twice the level of the mid-1980s, the
government said Sunday.

During the same period, drunken driving arrests dropped - from 1.8 million
in 1986 to 1.5 million in 1997 - even though the number of licensed drivers
increased almost 15 percent, to 183 million, the Justice Department's Bureau
of Justice Statistics announced.

The bureau attributed the decline in arrests in part to the aging of
licensed drivers. Younger drivers are more prone to drink and drive. In
1997, 54 percent of licensed drivers were aged 40 or older, up from 46
percent in 1986. The older the driver over age 21, the lower the rate of DWI
arrests, the government reported.

Of those convicted of DWI in 1997, 454,5000 were on probation, 41,100 were
in local jails and 17,600 were in state prisons. In 1986, 270,000 people
were behind bars or on probation for DWI.