According to these statistics, there's a wide discrepancyamong convictions for drinking and driving in North Carolina. Forinstance, in 1995 and 1996 Cumberland county had the lowest convictionrate in the state at about 29 percent. Buncombe County, on the other hand, had the highest conviction rate at 74 percent.
Advocates for safer roads say it's judges and attorneys who make allthe difference.
Council President Bob Goodale was never involved in a drunk drivingaccident, but he knows how close he came. That's why he wants the publicto know just how many of these drivers are getting arrested and thengetting off scot free.
In its new report, the council has released information about DWI convictions based on judicial districts.
Karyn Brown, director of the NC chapter of Mothers Against DrunkDriving, says the public needs to be outraged and act on it.
Many police officers and members of the highway patrol say they arefrustrated by the system as it works now. Many times, they say, they makearrests and then the cases are thrown out of court. Often they arrestthe same people over and over again -- people who never actually getconvicted.
There has been news legislation passed this year to help control drunkdriving, but many say the laws will do no good if they aren't enforced andif those arrested aren't punished.
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