WASHINGTON, Sept. 29 (UPI) -- Eighty-seven percent of respondents to a Mothers Against Drunk Drivers poll support the use of sobriety checkpoints as a way to stop drunken driving.
A survey commissioned by MADD and Nationwide Insurance to mark MADD's 25th anniversary found support for sobriety checkpoints, in which police halt traffic to check for drunken drivers, has increased in recent years.
In a news release, MADD said a poll in 1993 found 79 percent of those asked supported such checkpoints but the percentage was eight points higher in the latest survey.
The checkpoints were among the poll's top methods to reduce drunken driving. Others include requiring repeat DUI offenders to install an ignition interlock on vehicles and making it illegal to have an open container of alcohol in a vehicle.
The poll conducted by Gallup was based on telephone interviews with 1,004 people in the United States over the age of 16 from July 26 through Aug. 14. The data have a margin of error of plus or minus 3 percentage points.
