Archives of the Mayor's Press Office

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Date: Tuesday, March 30, 1999

Release #113-99

Contact: Colleen Roche/Curt Ritter (212) 788-2958
Marilyn Mode 212/374-4227 (NYPD)


DWI-RELATED ACCIDENTS AND ARRESTS DROP SINCE IMPLEMENTATION OF CAR SEIZURE INITIATIVE

94% Of Those Arrested For DWI Were First Time Offenders

Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani and New York City Police Commissioner Howard Safir today announced that since the implementation of the Police Department's new Driving While Intoxicated (DWI) Initiative, the City has experienced a 38.5 percent drop in DWI accidents and 116 fewer DWI arrests, compared to the same period last year. In addition, 110 people were arrested for DWI as the result of an accident from February 22 through March 25, of which 103 or 94 percent, were first time offenders. Two of those first time offenders arrested were involved in fatal accidents.

In an effort to combat drunk driving and reduce the number of DWI-related accidents and fatalities, the Police Department announced on February 22 that using civil forfeiture laws, it would begin confiscating the vehicles of intoxicated drivers who would forfeit their vehicles. During this time period, the Police Department has confiscated 164 vehicles of which 54 were involved in DWI accidents, to date the Police Department has confiscated 181 vehicles.

"Our City streets are safer today because the City decided to get tough on drunk drivers," said Mayor Giuliani. "The initial statistics show that the fear of having one's car confiscated under the civil forfeiture laws has been a tremendous deterrent to driving drunk. In the first month of this initiative, DWI accidents dropped from 179 to 110, while the Police Department made 342 DWI arrests, compared to 458 in 1998. I want to thank the Police Department for its enforcement efforts and remind New Yorkers that if you drink, don't even think about driving -- because if you do, you not only risk losing your car, you risk taking a life or losing your own."

Police Commissioner Safir said, "We are glad to see that our DWI enforcement efforts are yielding positive results in the initiative's first month. We believe that the added enforcement, as well as the threat of civil forfeiture and the possibility of losing one's car, have served to reduce the number of motorists who are willing to take the chance of being caught driving drunk. Drunk drivers kill, whether it is a first time or third time offense, and we intend to continue our enforcement efforts to further eliminate the chance of innocent people being needlessly hurt or killed by drunk drivers."

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