As the holiday party season approaches, Wisconsin again faces a test the state has failed repeatedly.

The assignment: Keep drunken drivers off the roads.

The solution is to attack drunken driving with far greater commitment than the state and its residents have shown before.

The lives of your friends and family may depend on the outcome.

The immediate task is personal.

• Don't drive drunk.

If you plan to party with alcohol and get home by car, appoint a designated driver who remains sober.

• Don't let friends or family drive drunk. Make sure any impaired partyer has a safe way home.

That job sounds simple enough, but Wisconsin residents have a record of ignoring the advice.

Earlier this year a U.S. government survey reported that Wisconsin had the highest rate of drunken driving in the nation, when determined by the percent of people reporting that they had driven drunk in the past year.

The consequences are deadly.

Wisconsin annually ranks among the worst states in the nation for percent of traffic deaths involving drunken drivers.

In 2007, nearly half of Wisconsin's traffic deaths were alcohol-related.

Furthermore, Wisconsin is among the worst states when it comes to doing anything to stop drunken driving, according to Mothers Against Drunken Driving.

The state fails to treat first offenses as a crime, and it bans sobriety checkpoints. In addition, Wisconsin has an especially weak law on using ignition locking devices with Breathalyzers to prevent convicted drunken drivers from repeating their offense.

The result is personified by Donald Wiessinger. As the Capital Times reported this week, Wiessinger was caught driving with a blood alcohol level of more than twice the legal limit on Oct. 14. He had plowed into several parked cars on Madison's East Side. If convicted, it will be his 10th drunken driving offense.

Wiessinger's repeat drunken driving cases are alarmingly common. In Dane County alone, the courts receive about eight cases a month involving people with five or more drunken driving offenses, or at least three offenses while driving with a child in the car, according to the Capital Times.

The evidence points to Wisconsin's long-term task, which is collective. The state must change a culture that considers drinking and driving to be acceptable behavior.

Lawmakers should start with a crackdown on drunken driving. Beef up enforcement, require tougher sentences for repeat drunken drivers, make better use of technologies such as ignition locks, and combine it with expanded treatment programs for alcohol abuse.

Wisconsin this year has an opportunity to enjoy the safest year on our roads in more than a generation. Through the first 11 months of 2008, 541 people died in traffic accidents, down from 695 at the same time last year.

Let's finish the year with a safe and sober holiday travel season.