The increased highway death rate and indications that alcoholic intoxication is often a contributing factor led the General Assembly of 1960 to direct the Virginia Advisory Legislative Council to continue its study of the problem of driving under the influence of intoxicants and the statutes relating thereto by adopting House Joint Resolution No. 100.

Baldwin G. Locher, member of the House of Delegates and member of the Council, Lexington, was named Chairman of the Committee to make the preliminary study. The following were named to serve with Mr. Locher: Robert F. Baldwin, member of the Senate of Virginia; W. R. Broaddus, Jr., Attorney at Law, Martinsville; Russell M. Carneal, member of the House of Delegates, Williamsburg; Richard C. Edmunds, Halifax; H. H. Harris, State Highway Commissioner, Richmond; Royston Jester, III, Commonwealth's Attorney, Lynchburg; Chester H. Lamb, Commissioner, Division of Motor Vehicles, Richmond; James H. Latimer, Richmond Times Dispatch, Richmond; William T. Robey, Mayor, Buena Vista; Mack I. Shanholtz, State Health Commissioner, Richmond; W. W. Wilkerson, Superintendent of Public Instruction, Richmond; and C. W. Woodson, Jr., Superintendent of State Police, Richmond.

The Committee organized and elected Mr. Broaddus as Vice-Chairman. John B. Boatwright, Jr., and Fletcher W. Harkrader, Jr., served as Secretary and Recording Secretary, respectively, to the Committee.

The Committee began work by compiling data as to the problem which the intoxicated or semi-intoxicated driver causes the law abiding motorist and his family. The danger which every user of the highways faces from the drinking driver is brought sharply into focus when we realize that in 32.84% of the fatal motor vehicle accidents of 1960 in Virginia, the driver had been drinking intoxicants. The instances in which the driver in fatal crashes has been drinking may be considerably higher than that reported due to the fact that intoxication is not always reported when there does not exist enough legal evidence for prosecution. In 1960, the convictions resulting from arrests for operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of intoxicants by the State police alone amounted to 2,315 and this figure represents less than 40% of the total of such convictions throughout the State.

Virginia for several years has provided by law for a voluntary blood test for alcohol. The files of the Chief Medical Examiner's office indicate that in 1958, 6,007 blood alcohol tests were made. In 1959, this figure dropped to 5,759, or a 4.12% reduction from 1958. In 1960, the blood alcohol test dropped to 5,279, or a further reduction of 8.3% from 1959, and 12.1 % less blood alcohol tests than were conducted in 1958. These figures indicate that the drinking driver has become aware of the value of blood alcohol tests to the law enforcement agencies of the State and is therefore refusing to take the voluntary test. The above facts alone demonstrate the danger to the law abiding and the pressing need of supplementing the tools available to the law enforcement authorities in order to enable them to protect the public on our highways.