Santa Fe (AP) — New Mexico has spent the last decade working to shake its infamous title as the state with the worst drunk driving record.

But that didn’t seem to matter last week, however, when a wrong-way driver suspected of being drunk plowed into a car near Santa Fe, killing four teenagers and gravely injuring a fifth. The driver faces vehicular homicide charges while officials wait for the results of his alcohol blood tests.

The horrifying headlines, the string of funerals, the anguish of friends and families was a stark reminder of the work that remains to be done.

“Not everyone has gotten the message. We still have issues with drunk driving in New Mexico,’’ said Rachel O’Connor, the DWI czar in the administration of Gov. Bill Richardson.

Drunken driving deaths have been falling over the past four years, from 219 in 2004 to 143 in 2008, according to the state’s Traffic Safety Bureau.

So far, this year’s statistics are similar to 2008, with 65 alcohol-related fatalities through June 30, O’Connor said.

New Mexico long ago relinquished its worst-of-the-worst national ranking: In 1996, it led the U.S. in alcohol-related traffic deaths, figured on a per capita, or population, basis.

As of 2007, the last year for which those statistics are available, the state’s per capita ranking was ninth in the nation.

There’s another way to compute alcohol-related traffic fatalities, and that’s by miles driven. By that measure, New Mexico ranked 18th nationally in 2007, based on statistics from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. That’s down from seventh nationally in 2002.

The push to get serious about drunken driving occurred after a wrong-way crash on Interstate 25 near Albuquerque on Christmas Eve in 1992 that killed a mother and her three young daughters.

The Legislature a few months later made major changes to DWI laws, reducing the level of presumed intoxication from 0.10 to 0.08 percent, devising enhanced penalties for those at 0.16, toughening penalties overall, and creating various DWI programs.

Drive-up liquor windows — more than 200 of them — were shuttered in 1998, eliminating the ability of drivers to buy booze without leaving their cars.

Since Richardson took office in 2003, anti-DWI efforts have had a higher profile, with more patrols and checkpoints, a DrunkBuster hot line, crackdowns on liquor sellers and providers, and the constant refrain of the “You Drink, You Drive, You Lose’’ ad campaign.

Penalties have been toughened again and ignition interlocks are mandatory.

“There are things we have done, and done right — but a lot of things we haven’t done, or not to the extent that we need to,’’ said Linda Atkinson, executive director of the DWI Resource Center.

Atkinson said many New Mexicans still don’t believe if they drive drunk, they’ll be caught. Police agencies need to step up patrols, she said, although she acknowledged that’s a challenge given budget constraints, recruitment and retention problems.

And she said many arrested offenders aren’t fully prosecuted.

Some are given plea deals. And while New Mexico requires convicted second- and third-time DWI offenders to be sentenced to substance abuse treatment, a recent review by University of New Mexico researchers of court records of 659 offenders indicated the mandate is only being partially implemented.

Treatment had clearly been ordered in just over half the cases, and had actually been received in less than half the cases.

And while ignition interlocks are required for all convicted offenders, research by Richard Roth, head of Impact DWI, showed that only about 35 percent of them were using the devices.

The others absconded and didn’t go to court, weren’t convicted for some reason, or told judges they didn’t have cars or wouldn’t be driving, according to Roth.

Aiming to fix that loophole, the state as of Wednesday now requires at least six months of driving with an interlock before convicted offenders can get their unrestricted driver’s licenses back.

“I think that New Mexico has a significantly strong package of laws. I think we could do better in enforcing it,’’ O’Connor said.

Santa Fe Sheriff Greg Solano says there has to be an attitude change, too.

“Driving home after drinking is ingrained in the culture of New Mexicans,’’ Solano said on his blog.

He then called on the teenagers mourning the loss of their friends to honor those killed by never drinking and driving.