SAFETEA-LU State Highway Safety Programs

Section 410 Alcohol-Impaired Driving Countermeasure Incentive Grant


History and Administration

The Alcohol-Impaired Driving Countermeasure Incentive Grant Program was initially authorized by the Omnibus Drug Initiative of 1989 and amended by the Intermodal Surface Transportation Efficiency Act of 1991, the Department of Transportation and Related Agencies Appropriations Act for FY 1993, the National Highway System Act of 1995 and the Transportation Efficiency Act of the 21st Century (TEA-21). SAFETEA-LU continues the program but amends several aspects of it. The program is administered by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) at the federal level and the State Highway Safety Offices (SHSO) at the state level.

Purpose

The purpose of this program is to provide incentive grants to states that implement effective programs to reduce traffic safety problems resulting from impaired driving.

Requirements

States may receive incentive grants in one of two ways. A state must satisfy a performance criteria (by having an alcohol-related fatality rate of .05 or below per 100 million vehicle miles of travel [VMT]) or satisfy three programmatic eligibility criteria in FY 2006, four criteria in FY 2007 and five criteria in FY 2008 and FY 2009. The programmatic criteria are as follows:

  1. Checkpoint or saturation patrol program
  2. Prosecution or adjudication outreach program
  3. BAC testing program
  4. High risk driver program
  5. Program for effective alcohol rehabilitation or DWI courts
  6. Underage drinking program
  7. Administrative license revocation law
  8. Self-sustaining impaired driving program

There is a maintenance of effort requirement. The federal share payable is 75%, declining to 25% in the final year of the program. Not more than 15% of the total program must be earmarked for the 10 states with the highest impaired driving fatality rates, and no high risk state may receive more than 30% of the earmarked funding. Those states must prepare an impaired driving plan that is approved by NHTSA, and half of the funding must be used for sobriety checkpoints or saturation patrols. Funds are allocated on the basis of the Section 402 formula. Unobligated Section 410 funds may be transferred to the Section 405 or Section 408 programs.

Funding

SAFETEA-LU authorizes the Section 410 program at the following levels:

  • FY 2009: $139 million
  • FY 2008: $131 million
  • FY 2007: $125 million
  • FY 2006: $120 million
  • FY 2005: $40 million

Current and Previous Fiscal Year Funding Levels >>