Getting tough
State cracks down on bars, reviews DWI prosecutions

State Police officer Devin Largo uses his radio to call in information about a vehicle he stopped while on patrol with a New Years Eve DWI task force Dec. 31. — © 2010 Gallup Independent / Cable Hoover

Copyright © 2010
Gallup Independent
By Phil Stake
Staff writer

GALLUP — Twenty-two people died in McKinley County last year at the hands of drunken drivers.

That’s one more alcohol-related death than in Bernalillo County, which hosts nearly nine times the number of residents, according to statistics prepared by the New Mexico Department of Transportation. Fifteen of the 22 deaths occurred on Navajo lands, according to NMDOT, but the most recent DWI statistics available from Navajo Nation are from 2008. Even those are incomplete. New Mexico DWI Czar Rachel O’Connor cautions that there may in fact be more DWI fatalities that have not been brought to light.

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