Background Impaired driving does not have a consistent definition across States. Thus, States have their own descriptions and methods of dealing with impaired driving situations. Also, many regard the entire DWI process as being very lengthy, manual, and complex.

Objectives Examine State DWI classification, prosecution, and conviction process. Identify DWI process key issues that may be shared among the States.

Proposed Approach Select representative States for the study based on arrest and alcohol related crash data obtained from the States and FARS reports. Understand DWI laws and the judicial process in each of the selected States in terms of how a person can be detected, arrested, prosecuted, found guilty, and sentenced to jail or prison for DWI. Perform comparative analyses of the DWI processes. The evaluation may require 2-3 years, depending on the extent of data collection.