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SANTA FE New Mexico will spend more than $2.6 million on increased enforcement and other measures aimed at deterring drunken driving, Gov. Bill Richardson said.
The initiatives will include solar-powered pavement markers in some areas that flash red when drivers are going the wrong way on interstate ramps.
The announcement was made a day before separate sets of anti-DWI recommendations were expected from the governor's own task force and from the outgoing and incoming attorneys general.
The new spending, from federal funds, dovetails with the task force's focus on beefed-up enforcement, which members have agreed is their highest priority.
That panel was scheduled to decide today which recommendations should be included in a report to the governor due next week.
But Richardson said in a news release he is "impatient when it comes to fighting DWI" and that getting started on initiatives could help avert another tragedy.
He formed the task force in response to a crash on I-25 near Santa Fe last month that killed six, including five members of a Las Vegas, N.M., family and the wrong-way driver.
Outgoing Attorney General Patricia Madrid and her successor, Gary King, also planned to announce their proposals to toughen DWI laws today.
Ignition interlock devices, the admissibility of blood alcohol tests in drunken-driving prosecutions, and stronger punishment for repeat offenders were expected to be among the items.
A spokeswoman for Madrid said the scheduling of their news conference while the task force is meeting was coincidental.
Included in Richardson's planned spending, which doesn't require legislative approval:
$750,000 to the state police for more checkpoints and patrols in San Juan, McKinley, Bernalillo, Santa Fe, Do¤a Ana and Rio Arriba counties, and to increase state police presence by 25 percent on weekends - a proposal the task force heard.
$500,000 to the Albuquerque Police Department for a "drunkbusters" unit, with APD officers working overtime while full-time officers are hired.
$400,000 to monitor courts in Santa Fe, Rio Arriba, San Juan, McKinley, Do¤a Ana and Bernalillo counties.
$400,000 for a project to encourage employers to identify alcohol problems and adopt "zero tolerance" policies.
$300,000 to Santa Fe County for four full-time DWI law enforcement officers.
$200,000 for public outreach, including signs in the Albuquerque airport to encourage the reporting of deplaning passengers who are drunk and might drive home. The driver in last month's interstate crash had been drinking on a flight and other passengers said he was intoxicated.
$70,000 for new signs every 15 miles on Interstates 10, 25 and 40, and new signs on U.S. 285, with the hot line number to report drunken drivers.
The pavement markers to alert wrong-way drivers on interstate ramps would be tried in Santa Fe, Rio Arriba, Do¤a Ana, Bernalillo, San Juan and McKinley counties. The cost hasn't been determined.
Richardson also said he will ask cell phone companies to program the hot line into phones they sell.
And he said Bernalillo County's Metro Court will get online access to the Motor Vehicle Division's registration database, so that convicted drunken drivers can't dodge required ignition interlocks by falsely claiming they don't have cars.

