6/17/04-The Montana Republican Party went on record June 12 in support of passage of a state law to prohibit open containers of alcohol in motor vehicles.
Under state law, drivers are prohibited from having an open alcoholic beverage, but passengers over 21 are free to drink while in the vehicle.
Currently, the state is required to spend a chunk of its federal highway funds on traffic safety because the state doesn’t have a ban on open containers of alcohol in vehicles.
The state is one of only about a dozen nationwide that allows passengers to drink; last year, that distinction pulled 3 percent out of the highway construction budget and put it to other uses.
The federal government mandated in 2001 that states either pass open container laws or spend a percentage of federal highway dollars on public safety projects such as installing cables to prevent crossover accidents and drunken driving checkpoints.