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Missouri, South Carolina and Texas, too, can learn from California's work, Transportation Department investigators believe. Turns out, the Golden State's often-notorious highways are safer than they seem. They can even be a role model.

"Other states do come to us, to see how we do things," Chris Cochran, spokesman for the California Office of Traffic Safety, said Monday. "We all trade ideas back and forth."

In a first-of-its-kind study ordered by Congress, Transportation Department investigators have compared how states combat drunken driving. California stands out, from on-line innovations to the deployment of special drunk-driving task forces.

California, for instance, makes it much easier for cities to seek funding. It sounds simple, but it helps tap the roughly $100 million a year the federal government provides in grants and other anti-drunk driving funding.

The Transportation Department's Office of Inspector General further praised California for cleverly targeting areas with higher-than-average rates of impaired driving. The Fresno Police Department, for instance, has won national recognition for a federally assisted campaign that includes weekend traffic checkpoints.

"I get phone calls and e-mails from people from all over the country asking about what we're doing," Sgt. Eric Eide, a Fresno Police Department traffic supervisor, said Monday.

With federal funding, Fresno officers compile information on where collisions occur and then swarm those areas with special enforcement efforts. Even when DUI arrests aren't made, Eide said, the police presence inevitably spurs cautionary water-cooler discussions among drivers.

State-by-state comparisons suggest California's programs must be doing some good.

In California, 1,719 people died during 2005 in drunk-driving accidents. That was more than any other state. But when the number of drivers and highway miles are taken into account, California's record looks a lot better. California recorded 0.52 fatalities for every 100 million vehicle miles traveled.

Florida, by contrast, recorded 0.73 fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles traveled. Missouri recorded 0.75 fatalities, and South Carolina topped them both with 0.94 deaths.

Federal highway safety officials are now publicizing the "best practices" used in individual states, and drafting voluntary guidelines for measuring state performance.

"California obviously has a lot of resources, so it's not surprising that they're leading the pack," said Jonathan Adkins, spokesman for the Governors Highway Safety Association.

Nearly three years ago, urged on by Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Congress ordered the Transportation Department investigators to examine the drunken-driving programs. The investigators' report is now circulating on Capitol Hill, where lawmakers could crack down in several ways.

A major House immigration bill, for instance, adds a new restriction that immigrants with three drunk-driving convictions can't obtain U.S. residency. Other bills have been introduced to spur the deportation of immigrants arrested for drunk driving.

More broadly, Congress can use its next big transportation bill to provide grants as incentives for states to act.

"Politics plays a huge role in a lot of these issues," Adkins said.

(Distributed by Scripps-McClatchy Western Service.)