Until the mid-1990s, New Mexico had one of the nation's worst drunk-driving problems. Then, the legislature took a number of steps to crack down, including appointing the nation's only "DWI czar." Drunk driving declined as a result.

But now, alcohol-related traffic fatalities in New Mexico are again on the rise, despite steps like hiring full-time DWI police to patrol problem counties and requiring first-time offenders to install ignition interlock devices in their cars. Recent high-profile DWI arrests include a tribal police chief, the chief business officer in the Albuquerque school system, and a chief state district judge.

"Why, after all this legislation, this funding, this research, the grassroots programs, why are we not making better progress now?" said Nancy Owen Lewis, an anthropologist specializing in addiction and director of academic programs at the School of American Research in Santa Fe.

A fatal 1992 Christmas Eve DWI crash had helped galvanize action in New Mexico, and the subsequent crackdown cut annual alcohol-related road fatalities 48 percent by 2000, to 194. But last year, 219 people died in alcohol-related crashes in the state, and DWI arrests are on the rise, too. Conversely, DWI convictions fell to a 20-year low in 2004.

Terry Huertaz, executive director of the New Mexico chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving in New Mexico, said the state's proximity to Mexico, with its availability of cheap alcohol, is part of the problem. Others blamed judges for failing to impose tough penalties on offenders, and disorganization in the District Attorney's office.

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