Montgomery County saw a nearly 72 percent drop in alcohol-related traffic deaths in 2005, according to a new report released Wednesday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Prince George’s also saw a double-digit drop in such deaths.

The report indicates that in crashes where the driver has a blood-alcohol level higher than the 0.08 legal limit, Montgomery saw a 71.9 percent decrease in deaths — down from 32 in ’04 to 9 in ’05. Prince George’s County saw a 27.5 percent decrease in fatalities, which went from 40 in ’04 to 29 in ’05.

And officials from both counties said the 2006 numbers are showing that trend should continue.

Montgomery County Police Chief J. Thomas Manger said his department made more than 4,000 arrests for drunk driving last year and may reach more than 5,000 this year.

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“We are taking more aggressive efforts across the board to stop people from hurting themselves or others in making one giant mistake,” Manger said. “And we’re finding it’s working.”

The local statistics were good news considering the national rate of alcohol-related traffic fatalities has remained nearly unchanged in the past decade. Alcohol was involved in 16,885 traffic deaths in 2005, down just a fraction of a percentage point from the 16,919 in 2004. Nearly 39 percent of all traffic deaths in 2005 involved alcohol, the study showed.

One national trend that is beginning to appear locally is that the average blood-alcohol levels of drivers being arrested for drunken driving is rising. Manger said he estimates the average blood-alcohol level of drivers arrested is .15 — nearly twice the legal limit — up significantly over past years. The study was released as the NHTSA kicks off an unprecedented $11 million national informational campaign aimed at stemming drunken driving. The ads, which began running on television, radio and the Internet on Wednesday night, are aimed the biggest offenders — males between 21 and 34 years old. The demographic is involved in nearly 33 percent of all alcohol-related traffic deaths.

Manger, a former Fairfax County police chief, said he does not see a trend in which drunk driving is most prevalent in a particular geographic area. Rather, he says, arrests are made in most urban and rural areas.

“Trust me, if we saw a trend we move on it,” Manger said. “It seems the problem does not discriminate.”

mrupert@dcexaminer.com