Mothers Against Drunk Driving gives Maine low marks for its drunken-driving laws and suggests the state needs better regulations to protect the public, according to a report released this week.

Out of the 50 states, Maine ranked 42nd, near the bottom, with 36 percent of all traffic fatalities in the state last year the result of drunken driving.

MADD cited Maine's discretionary, rather than mandatory, ignition-interlock-device law, passed just this year; and laws permitting drunken drivers with multiple convictions to retain their licenses as reasons for Maine's poor showing.

According to MADD's statistics, there are 21,759 drivers on Maine roads with three or more driving-while-intoxicated convictions. An additional 3,875 drivers have five or more such convictions. The data came from the Maine Bureau of Motor Vehicles.

"The information was collected by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and they received it from the states themselves," said MADD Vice President of Communications Heidi Castle.

Maine law-enforcement officials find the cycle of habitual drunken driving frustrating.

Kennebec County Sheriff Randall Liberty said his deputies spend great amounts of time and financial resources to catch drunken drivers -- many of them not first-time offenders, he said.

"There's a lot of alcoholism out there, and some people do continue to reoffend," Liberty said.

Under Maine state law, one can be a habitual convicted drunken driver and still retain a driver's license.

A Maine resident who is convicted of two operating-under-the-influence charges may get his or her license back after a nine-month suspension period with an ignition interlock device -- a mechanism designed to lock the ignition of a vehicle if the operator registers a blood-alcohol content above the legal limit.

In the case of an individual having three or four more subsequent convictions, the license may be returned to the driver after a suspension period and interlock installation of three and four years, respectively.

Installation of the device is at the discretion of a Maine judge.

"What MADD wants is for all states to have a mandatory interlock law for drunk drivers," Castle said. "It protects the public because it stops that person from driving drunk, but still allows them to drive to work or school or do what they need to do in their lives.

"Generally, the first-time people caught for drunk driving is not the first time they have ever driven drunk," Castle said. "Many first-time offenders have driven drunk an average of 87 times before they're caught."

Crackdowns are becoming more commonplace throughout Maine, Liberty said.

"I can say without hesitation that enforcement has stepped up," he said. "We have been receiving state and federal grants to set up details, road blocks and other enforcement. We're very aggressive with this."

Liberty said laws that allow convicted drunken drivers to get their licenses back -- even after more than five convictions -- trouble officers.

"The fiscal reality is, there is limited bed space in our jails to keep these people and there's a limited number of officers to do enforcement," he said. "It's a difficult and frustrating situation."

Meghan V. Malloy -- 623-3811,

ext. 431

mmalloy@centralmaine.com