A drunken driver gets behind the wheel an average of 87 times before he or she is arrested for the first time, according to Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
Of those that are convicted of driving drunk, more than half continue to drive on a suspended license.
The Illinois Department of Transportation's Division of Traffic Safety and Mothers Against Drunk Drivers have partnered together to create Operation Report Card, a court monitoring program that works to ensure drunken drivers are prosecuted consistently in Illinois and fewer cases are dismissed.
"This program allows us to follow the adjudication of DUI cases and gather data regarding how they are handled so there is equitable treatment of offenders and victims from county to county," said Trisha Clegg, MADD project manager of the court monitoring program. "We believe increased convictions and consistency in sentencing would significantly thwart the problem of impaired drivers and provide a basis for stronger sentencing of repeat offenders."
The court monitoring program will track defendants from arraignment through the post-conviction process to create a database of facts about the adjudication of drunk driving cases in Illinois. The database will be analyzed and reviewed by a panel of experts and advisors
"Drunk driving is the most frequently committed violent crime in the nation," said Kristi Hosea, a victim services specialist for MADD. "We believe that Illinois' law enforcement are making the stops and writing the tickets, but there is a breakdown in the system somewhere between the street stop and the courthouse. We hope to shed light on this so that the system can be improved and drunk driving can be dramatically reduced in Illinois."
The program already has monitored more than 7,000 drunken driving cases in Illinois and expects to monitor at least three times more cases before a report about how drunken driving cases in Illinois are typically handled in the court system is released.
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