Arizona highway safety receives mixed reviews

According to Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety, Arizona is one of the worst states in the country when it comes to driver safety laws.

Arizona ranks 49th on their study, only ranked ahead of South Dakota when it comes to the number of safe driving laws that are on the books. Jacqueline Gillan, the group's president, said that Arizona would save thousands of dollars and lives if they were to implement more driving laws. She added that, currently, Arizona police are not allowed to pull someone over for not having a booster seat, motorcycle helmet, or for texting while driving.

"Unfortunately many of the safety laws that would reduce deaths and injuries are simply not considered and urgent priority by our elected leaders," said Gillan.

Alberto Gutier, Director for the Governor's Office of Highway Safety said that Arizona deserves more credit than they were given.

"Our DUI enforcement is fantastic; we just finished an incredible year with law enforcement protecting people by arresting 23,000 DUI offenders in 2011," said Gutier. "We are second to none in highway safety enforcement."

The report goes on to claim that Arizona is lacking any sort of driver texting laws, but according to Gutier, the City of Phoenix wrote over 100 citations for texting and driving in 2011. He added that Arizona is working very hard on increasing their texting and driving laws, but new laws take time to go through the legislature and be put into place.

"It's very difficult to compare the numbers," he said. "While they're complaining that we are deficient, we are also receiving five star ratings from other organizations. So I'm not sure where they are coming from."

Mother Against Drunk Driving (MADD) recently gave Arizona, along with only four other states in the country, a five-star rating when it comes to DUI enforcement. To receive a five star rating a state must require the installation of an ignition interlock device for all DUI offenders, conduct sobriety checkpoints, have harsher penalties for those who are convicted of a DUI with a minor in the car, and confiscate the driver's license of those convicted of a DUI. MADD also ranked Arizona the eighth safest state for driving in 2010.

Arizona has recently seen a 46 percent decrease in drunk driving fatalities due to newly implemented programs, according to MADD.