If Mothers Against Drunk Driving, Students Against Drunk Driving, the National Transportation Safety Board, National Council on Alcoholism, Maine Department of Public Safety and Beer Institute can’t persuade people not to drink and drive, perhaps it can’t be done.

In the last decade, a dozen national groups and scores of state and regional organizations have graphically described the dangers of drunken driving. Some people have gotten the message, too many others have been slow to learn.

The numbers presented by the groups make the danger abundantly clear: two in five Americans will be involved in an alcohol-related crash; from 1982 to 1989, nearly 190,000 people died in alcohol-related crashes; in all age groups between 5 and 34, auto accidents, half of which are alcohol-related, are leading cause of death. These have been well-known statistics and similar ones have been published repeatedly over the years. Still, some people don’t get it.

In Maine alone, more than 1,100 people have been killed in alcohol-related crashes since 1980, and in the first 10 months of this year, 60 people have died in such crashes. The national monetary cost of drunken-driving accidents last year was nearly $15 million; the emotional loss was incalculable.

The state Public Safety Department lists four sensible things a host can do when a guest has had too much to drink: Drive the friend home yourself; ask a guest who is sober to drive the friend home; call a taxi; or let the friend stay for the night.

Simple answers, but effective ways to reduce the death rate on Maine highways.