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86 Drunk Driving Essay Topic Ideas & Examples

🏆 best drunk driving topic ideas & essay examples, ⭐ good research topics about drunk driving, 👍 simple & easy drunk driving essay titles, ❓ research questions about drunk driving.

• On the Issue of Drunk Driving The concentration of alcohol in a driver’s blood is directly proportional to the driver’s ability to judge distances as well react appropriately to sudden happenings in the road.
• Drunk Driving vs. Texting While Driving Specifically, it presents the issue of drunk driving and texting while driving to investigate which of the two distracters causes more accidents on the roads. We will write a custom essay specifically for you by our professional experts 808 writers online Learn More
• Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol One of the implications of the adolescent and adult driving while intoxicated is enduring the life after the occurrence of breaking the law.
• Drunk Drivers Should Be Imprisoned on the First Offense Drunk driving has been reported to be the leading cause of traffic accidents around the globe that has led to many deaths and loss of property.
• Drunk Driving and Its Consequences In all states of the United States, it is illegal to drive under the influence of alcohol beyond the set limit per state, according the countries legal definition, drunk driving is driving when one has […]
• Drunk Driving Problem in the Modern Society I strongly believe that drunk driving is the problem which must be solved, however, the solutions to the problem which have already existed could not eliminate the problem.
• Mothers Against Drunk Driving and National Public Radio’s Cultural Modes In Mothers Against Drunk Driving and National Public Radio, and National Public Radio, a proactive society is created in terms of norms and values, thanks to the organization’s beneficial system benefits the contributors’ financiers alike.
• Deterring the Drunk Driver: An Investigation of the Effectiveness of DUI Legislation Despites various legalizations in the prevention of repeat DUI offenses, research shows that the do little in the prevention of first time DUI offenses.
• Public Service Ads Against Drunk Driving The PSA includes the imagery of glasses filled with alcoholic drinks crashing against each other with the sound of a car accident in the background.
• Drunk Driving and Traffic Violations Issues A person who exceeded the norms of alcohol, and was driving home, is a violation that does not correspond to the punishment of spending a certain time in jail.
• Drunk Driving Issue Analysis One finds that the deep changes in the body composition of drinkers after drinking; one would anticipate alcohol to have as a minimum various straight outcomes on behavior.
• Teenage Drunk Driving Issue Analysis Therefore there is a need to analyze the relationship between drinking and driving and when it comes to teenagers, injuries take the form of fatal accidents.
• Tougher Laws Against Drunk Driving It must begin with laws that lower the limit so that drivers with a BAC of 0. 05 must not be allowed to operate a motor vehicle.
• Public Policy: The Issue of Drunk Driving The Government puts a great amount of effort into the DUI policy to minimize the number of impaired drivers getting behind the wheel and mitigating the consequences of such conduct.
• Alcohol and Drugs in Fatally Injured Drivers The researchers targeted to examine the prevalence of drugs in a sample of drivers. The other variables included the time of the crash, and fatalities reported after the accident.
• Mothers Against Drunk Driving It is useful to victims of drunken driving and to the families of the deceased victims as a result of drunk driving.
• Penalties for Drunk Driving: Criminal Charges for Killing Someone When Drunk Driving
• Campaigns Against Drunk Driving
• Drunk Driving Cause, Effect, and Control
• Breath Testing and the Demand for Drunk Driving
• Punishment and Deterrence: Evidence From Drunk Driving
• Seatbelt Use Following Stricter Drunk Driving Regulations
• Dealing With the Problem of Teenage Drunk Driving
• The Intended and Unintended Effects of Drunk Driving Policies
• Increasing Penalties for Drunk Driving Repeat Offenders
• Optimal Drunk Driving Penalty Structure
• Alcohol and Drunk Driving Is One of the Most Frequent Causes of Death
• Anti-drunk Driving Tech for U.S. Carmakers
• Death Penalty for Drunk Driving: Should Drunk Drivers Get the Death Penalty if They Kill Someone?
• Drunk Driving Stopping Repeat Offenders
• The Pain and Suffering Caused by Drunk Driving
• Drunk Driving Laws and Penalties by State in the USA
• The Need for Stricter Drunk Driving Laws
• Deterring Drunk Driving Fatalities: An Economics of Crime Perspective
• Youth Alcohol Use and Risky Sexual Behavior: Evidence From Underage Drunk Driving Laws
• The Causes and Solutions to the Problem of Teenage Drunk Driving in the U.S.
• Links Between Drunk Driving and Road Accidents
• Aggressive Methods of Preventing Drunk Driving
• Drunk Driving Legislation and Traffic Fatalities
• Drunk Driving: Its Effects on the Society
• Drunk Driving and Drugs Are a Significant Threat to Public Safety
• Irresponsible Drinking and Drunk Driving Deaths
• Cause and Effect of Drunk Driving
• The Terrible Tragedies Caused by Drunk Driving in the United States
• The Truth About Drunk Driving: Why the Drunk Driving Laws Should Be Worse
• Dangers and Need for Preventing Drunk Driving
• Drunk Driving After the Passage of Smoking Bans in Bars
• Society and the Government Should Work Together to Eliminate Drunk Driving
• America Needs Better Drunk Driving Laws
• Mothers Against Drunk Driving: Grassroots Movement to Policy
• Heavy Alcohol Use and the Commission of Nuisance Crime: Evidence From Underage Drunk Driving Laws
• The Psychological Roots of Drunk Driving
• Comparing Mothers Against Drunk Driving and National Urban Leagues
• Preventing Adolescent Drunk Driving
• License Suspension and Drunk Driving
• Drunk Driving Fatalities: Exigent Solution
• What’s Drunk Driving Among Teens, and What Happens When Hearing the Phrase “Drunk Driving”?
• Why Drunk Driving Happens?
• Why Should the Drunk Driving Laws Be Worse?
• How Drunk Has Driving Impacted a Student?
• Did Ontario’s Zero Tolerance & Graduated Licensing Law Reduce Youth Drunk Driving?
• Can Police Deter Drunk Driving?
• What Are Cause and Effect Essay on Drunk Driving?
• What Is the Problem With Drunk Driving?
• What Are the Five Signs of a Drunk Driver?
• What Is Meant by Drunken Driving?
• Is It a Drunk Driver or a Drunken Driver?
• Why Do Drunk Drivers Survive?
• Why Do Drunk Drivers Get off Easy?
• What Is the Solution to Drunk Driving?
• How Do You Stop Drunk Driving?
• What Does It Take Drivers Three Seconds to Do?
• How Long After Drinking Can You Drive?
• What Is the Penalty in Case of Drunken Driving for the First Offense?
• Do You Get Points for Drunk Driving?
• What Are Some Distractions While Driving?
• What Is the Punishment for Drunk Driving?
• What Is the Best Way to Beat a Drunk Driving Charge?
• What Do Cops Often Look For From Drunk Drivers on the Road?
• Why Does America Need Better Drunk Driving Laws?
• What Is Dealing With the Problem of Teenage Drunk Driving?
• What Are Deterring Drunk Driving Fatalities?
• Did Ontario’s Zero Tolerance and Graduated Licensing Law Reduce Youth Drunk Driving?
• What Are the Psychological Roots of Drunk Driving?
• What Are the Effects to the Society Argumentative of Free Drunk Driving?
• What Are Good Drunk Driving Punishments in Wisconsin?
• Chicago (A-D)
• Chicago (N-B)

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• Open access
• Published: 12 March 2015

Driving under the influence of alcohol: frequency, reasons, perceived risk and punishment

• Francisco Alonso 1 ,
• Juan C Pastor 1 ,
• Luis Montoro 2 &
• Cristina Esteban 1  

Substance Abuse Treatment, Prevention, and Policy volume  10 , Article number:  11 ( 2015 ) Cite this article

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The aim of this study was to gain information useful to improve traffic safety, concerning the following aspects for DUI (Driving Under the Influence): frequency, reasons, perceived risk, drivers' knowledge of the related penalties, perceived likelihood of being punished, drivers’ perception of the harshness of punitive measures and drivers’ perception of the probability of behavioral change after punishment for DUI.

A sample of 1100 Spanish drivers, 678 men and 422 women aged from 14 to 65 years old, took part in a telephone survey using a questionnaire to gather sociodemographic and psychosocial information about drivers, as well as information on enforcement, clustered in five related categories: “Knowledge and perception of traffic norms”; “Opinions on sanctions”; “Opinions on policing”; “Opinions on laws” (in general and on traffic); and “Assessment of the effectiveness of various punitive measures”.

Results showed around 60% of respondents believe that driving under the influence of alcohol is maximum risk behavior. Nevertheless, 90.2% of the sample said they never or almost never drove under the influence of alcohol. In this case, the main reasons were to avoid accidents (28.3%) as opposed to avoiding sanctions (10.4%). On the contrary, the remaining 9.7% acknowledged they had driven after consuming alcohol. It is noted that the main reasons for doing so were “not having another way to return home” (24.5%) and alcohol consumption being associated with meals (17.3%).

Another important finding is that the risk perception of traffic accident as a result of DUI is influenced by variables such as sex and age. With regard to the type of sanctions, 90% think that DUI is punishable by a fine, 96.4% that it may result in temporary or permanent suspension of driving license, and 70% that it can be punished with imprisonment.

Conclusions

Knowing how alcohol consumption impairs safe driving and skills, being aware of the associated risks, knowing the traffic regulations concerning DUI, and penalizing it strongly are not enough. Additional efforts are needed to better manage a problem with such important social and practical consequences.

In Europe, traffic accidents are one of the main causes of mortality in people between 15 and 29 years old, and driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI) is a major risk factor in most crashes [ 1 , 2 ].

In the year 2001 in Spain, 40,174 people were treated in public hospitals for traffic injuries. Some 28% of these injuries were serious or very serious and drinking was involved in a high percentage of cases. According to the Spanish Directorate General of Traffic (DGT), alcohol is involved in 30-50% of fatal accidents and in 15 to 35% of crashes causing serious injury, constituting a major risk factor in traffic accidents. This problem is especially important among young people and worsens on weekend nights [ 3 , 4 ].

In more recent years, several studies have shown that more than a third of adults and half of teenagers admit they have driven drunk. We also know that most of them were not detected. Generally, the rate of arrests for driving under the influence is very low and even those drivers who were arrested were mostly “first-time” offenders [ 5 ].

Some studies show that many young people lack information or knowledge about the legislation regulating consumption of alcohol for drivers, as well as the effects of this drug on the user [ 6 - 8 ].

There are also some widespread beliefs and misconceptions regarding the actions the driver can take in order to neutralize the effects of alcohol before driving (for instance drinking coffee, having a cold shower or breathing fresh air). As suggested by Becker’s model of health beliefs [ 9 , 10 ], preventive behavior is unlikely to occur unless the subject considers the action necessary, hence the importance of providing adequate information and disproving false beliefs.

Drivers are not usually aware of the risk they assume when they drive under the influence of alcohol, as they do not suffer a traffic accident every time they drink and drive. Hence they tend to think there is no danger in driving under the influence of alcohol, incurring the same risk behavior once and again.

But the reality is quite different. Alcohol causes very obvious alterations in behavior, as it affects almost all the physical skills we need for safe driving. It can interfere with attention, perceptual functioning and motor skills, as well as in decision making while driving.

Drinking impairs the ability to drive and increases the risk of causing an accident. The effects of alcohol consumption on driving-related functions are modulated by some factors, such as form of consumption (regular or infrequent), expectations about their consumption, expertise in driving and driver’s age. The increased risk of accident starts at a lower blood alcohol level when drivers are inexperienced or they are occasional drinkers, and begins at a higher blood alcohol level when these are more experienced drivers or regular drinkers [ 11 , 12 ].

The BAC represents the volume of alcohol in the blood and is measured in grams of alcohol per liter of blood (g / l) or its equivalent in exhaled air.

Any amount of alcohol in blood, however small, can impair driving, increasing the risk of accident. Therefore, the trend internationally is to lower the maximum rates allowed.

After drinking, the rate of alcohol in blood that a driver is showing can vary widely due to numerous modulating variables. Among them, some important factors are the speed of drinking, the type of alcohol (fermented drinks such as beer or wine, or distilled beverages like rum or whisky) or the fact of having previously ingested some food, as well as the age, sex or body weight. Ideally, if everyone drank alcohol responsibly and never drove after drinking many deaths would be avoided. Accurate information about how driving under the influence effects traffic safety would be a positive step towards this goal.

Study framework

Research on enforcement of traffic safety norms has a long tradition. In 1979, a classic work [ 13 ] showed that increasing enforcement and toughening sanctions can reduce accidents as an initial effect, although the number of accidents tends to normalize later.

Justice in traffic is needed insofar as many innocent people die on the roads unjustly. This is our starting point and our central principle. In order to prevent traffic accidents, a better understanding is needed of the driver’s knowledge, perceptions and actions concerning traffic regulations. Drivers have to be aware of how important rules are for safety. The present study comes from a broader body of research on traffic enforcement, designed to develop a more efficient sanctions system [ 5 , 14 ].

Our research used a questionnaire to gain sociodemographic and psychosocial information about drivers, as well as additional information on enforcement clustered in five related categories: “Knowledge and perception of traffic norms”; “Opinions on sanctions”; “Opinions on policing”; “Opinions on laws” (general ones and traffic laws in particular); and “Assessment of the effectiveness of various punitive measures”.

A number of additional factors were also explored, including: driving too fast or at an improper speed for the traffic conditions, not keeping a safe distance while driving, screaming or verbal abuse while driving, driving under the influence, smoking while driving, driving without a seat belt and driving without insurance. For a more complete review, see the original study [ 14 ].

The aim of this study was to gain useful information to improve traffic safety, concerning the following aspects:

Frequency of driving under the influence of alcohol (DUI).

Reasons for either driving or not driving under the influence (DUI).

Perceived risk of DUI.

Drivers’ knowledge of DUI-related penalties.

The perceived likelihood of being punished for DUI.

Drivers’ perception of the harshness of punitive measures for DUI.

Drivers’ knowledge of the penalties for DUI.

Drivers’ perception concerning the probability of behavior change after punishment for DUI.

Sociodemographic and psychosocial factors related with alcohol consumption and driving.

Participants

The sample consisted of 1100 Spanish drivers: 678 men (61.64%) and 422 women (38.36%), between 14 and 65 years of age. The initial sample size was proportional by quota to segments of Spanish population by gender and age. The number of participants represents a margin of error for the general data of ± 3 with a confidence interval of 95% in the worst case of p = q = 50%; with a significance level of 0.05.

Drivers completed a telephone survey. 1100 drivers answered interviews, and the response rate was 98.5%; as it was a survey on social issues, most people consented to collaborate.

Procedure and design

The survey was conducted by telephone. A telephone sample using random digit dialing was selected. Every phone call was screened to determine the number of drivers (aged 14 or older) in the household. The selection criteria were possession of any type of driving license for vehicles other than motorcycles and driving frequently. Interviewers systematically selected one valid driver per home. The survey was carried out using computer assisted telephone interview (CATI) in order to reduce interview length and minimize recording errors, ensuring the anonymity of the participants at all times and emphasizing the fact that the data would be used only for statistical and research purposes. The importance of answering all the questions truthfully was also stressed.

In this article, we present the data on driving under the influence of alcohol. The first question raised was: How often do you currently drive after drinking any alcoholic beverage? Possible responses were: Almost always, Often, Sometimes, Rarely or Never.

If they answered either Almost always, Often or Sometimes, they were asked: What is the reason that leads you to drive under the influence? If they answered Rarely or Never, they were asked: What is the reason you rarely or never drive under the influence? In both cases, respondents had the option of an open answer.

Later they were asked to rate from 0 to 10 the risk that driving under the influence of alcohol can cause a traffic accident in their opinion (0 being the minimum risk and 10 the maximum risk of crash).

Then they were asked to rate from 0 to 10 the harshness with which they thought DUI sanctions should be administered.

They were also asked: Is driving exceeding alcohol limits punishable? In this case, participants had the chance of answering Yes or No . We would then compare the correct answers with the standard to determine the knowledge.

Drivers who were unaware that DUI is punishable were asked about the probability of being sanctioned for this reason using the following question: When driving exceeding the limits of alcohol, out of 10 times, how many times is it usually sanctioned?

Another question dealt with the type of penalties. The participants were asked if the penalties for DUI consisted of economic fines, imprisonment or license suspension, either temporary or permanent. The question raised was: Have you ever received any penalty for driving under the influence? Possible answers were Yes or No . Those drivers who answered affirmatively were then asked about the harshness of punishment: How do you consider the punishment for DUI? The response options were Hard enough, Insufficient or Excessive. Furthermore, they were asked whether or not they changed their behavior after the punishment.

The questionnaire was used to ascribe drivers to different groups according to demographic and psychosocial characteristics, as well as to identify driving habits and risk factors.

Demographic variables

Gender: male or female.

Age: 14-17, 18-24, 25-29, 30-44, 45-65 and over 65 years old.

Educational level.

Type of driver: professional or non-professional.

Employment status: currently employed, retired, unemployed, unemployed looking for the first job, homemaker or student.

Driving habits

Frequency: the frequency with which the participant drive, the possible choices being Every day, Nearly every day, Just weekends, A few days a week, or A few days per month.

Mileage: the total distance in number of kilometers driven or travelled weekly, monthly or annually.

Route: type of road used regularly, including street, road, highway or motorway, and tollway.

Car use: motives for car use, for instance, to work, to go to work and return home from work or study centre, personal, family, recreational, leisure and others.

Experience/risk

Experience: number of years the participant has held a driver license, grouping them as 2 years or less, 3-6, 7-10, 11-15, 16-20, 21-25, 26-30 and over 30 years.

Traffic offenses. Number of sanctions in the past three years (none, one, two, three or more).

Accidents. Number of accidents as driver throughout life (none, one or more than one), and their consequences (casualties or deaths, or minor damages).

Once data were collected, a number of statistical analyses were performed, using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), in order to obtain relevant information according to the aims of the study.

74.7% of the sample said that they had never driven under the influence. 15.5% of drivers said they did it almost never, and only the remaining 9.7% (sometimes 9,1%, often 0,2% or always 0,5%) acknowledged that they had driven after consuming alcohol (Figure  1 ).

Frequency of DUI.

Regarding the main reasons that led the drivers to act this way, expressed among drivers who admitted to having driven under the influence of alcoholic beverages, 24.5% of them indicated that it was unavoidable, as “I had to go home and couldn’t do anything else”, while 17.3% claimed that the act of drink-driving was an unintentional consequence or “something associated with meals”, and only 16.4% admitted having done it “intentionally”. In addition, 12.7% considered that “alcohol doesn’t impair driving” anyway (Figure  2 ).

Reasons for DUI.

“In any case, 60% of the interviewees perceived driving under the influence of alcohol as the highest risk factor for traffic accidents.”

Among them, the perception of this risk (or dangerousness of driving under the influence) is greater in women [F (1, 1081) = 41.777 p <0.05], adults aged between 18 and 44 [F (5, 1075) = 4.140 p <0.05], drivers who have never been fined for this infraction [F (2, 1080) = 29.650 p <0.05], drivers who had never committed the offense [F (4, 1077) = 40.489 p <0.05], and drivers who have never been involved in an accident [F (1, 1081) = 12.296 p <0.05]. Table  1 shows the values for this perception by gender and age.

There appears to be no significant relationship between the perceived risk attributed to DUI and other variables such as educational level, type of driver, driving frequency, vehicle use and years of experience.

The main reasons put forward for not drinking and driving included not drinking in any circumstances (50,5%), to avoid accidents (28,3%) as opposed to avoiding sanctions (10,4%) - such as financial penalties (8,4%), withdrawal of driving license (1,8%) or jail (0,2%) - or other reasons related to attitudes to road safety (16,6%).

On a scale of 0-10, participants rated the risk of economic penalties when driving under the influence of the alcohol with an average of 5.2, in other words they estimate the probability of being fined as roughly half of the times one drives drunk.

The perception of this risk (penalty or financial punishment for driving under the influence) is also greater in women [F (1, 1095) = 30,966 p <0.05], drivers who have never been involved in an accident [F (1, 1095) = 8.479 p <0.05], and drivers who had never been fined for this infraction [F (2 1094) = 12.515 p <0.05].

There appears to be no significant relationship between the perceived risk of financial penalty and other variables such as educational level, employment, type of driver, driving frequency, vehicle use and years of experience.

Almost everyone (99.1%) thinks that DUI is punishable and only 0.9% of drivers think it is not.

On a scale of 0-10, participants assigned an average of 9.1 to the need to punish this traffic breach severely. The score is higher in women [F (1, 1086) = 29.474 p <0.05], adults aged 18 to 24 years [F (5, 1089) = 2.699 p <0.05], drivers who have never been involved in an accident [F (1, 1095) = 8.479 p <0.05], and people who had never been fined for this reason [F (2, 1085) = 26,745 p <0.05], which means that these groups are less tolerant of this kind of behavior. By age, college students are the least tolerant and retirees are the most tolerant.

There was no significant relationship between the perceived need to punish this behavior harshly and variables such as type of driver, driving frequency and vehicle use.

Regarding the type of sanctions, 89.5% of drivers think that driving under the influence is subject to an economic fine, almost 70% say it could even be punished by imprisonment, while 96.4% believe it can lead to a temporary or permanent suspension of the license (Figure  3 ).

Type of sanction the driver think DUI is subject to.

Among the drivers who had been fined for DUI, nearly 75% considered that the imposed punishment was adequate, while the remaining 25% saw it as excessive (Figure  4 ). Finally, 91.7% of this group found they had changed their behavior after punishment (Figure  5 ).

Perception of punishment harshness imposed for DUI.

Perception concerning behavior change after punishment for DUI.

Alcohol is a major risk factor in traffic accidents. From the objective standpoint, alcohol interferes with the skills needed to drive safely, as evidenced by numerous studies on driving under the influence of alcohol conducted to date. From the subjective point of view, drivers also perceive it as dangerous, as our study shows.

Around 60% of respondents believe that driving under the influence of alcohol is maximum risk behavior. A smaller percentage compared to those reported by other studies in which the percentage of people that saw drink-driving as a major threat to safety reached 81% [ 15 ].

First, we note a clear correlation between perceived risk and avoidance behavior. In general the higher the perceived risk, the lower the probability of committing the offense, and vice versa: the lower the perceived risk, the greater the likelihood of driving after consuming alcohol.

Thus, drivers who do not commit this offense perceive that the risk of accidents associated with DUI is very high. When it comes to drivers who commit the offense occasionally, the perceived risk is lower, and when it comes to drivers who often drive under the influence of the alcohol, the perception of risk is clearly inferior. Thus, the frequency of DUI and risk perception seem to be inversely related.

These results are related to the hypothesis of optimistic bias, which states that drinkers are overly optimistic about probabilities of adverse consequences from drink. In a study [ 16 ] about overconfidence about consequences of high levels of alcohol consumption, the authors established an alternative to the optimism bias hypothesis that could explain our findings, affirming that persons who drink frequently and consume large amounts of alcohol daily could be more familiar with the risks of such behaviors.

Another important finding is that the risk perception of traffic accident as a result of DUI is influenced by variables such as sex and age. In relation to gender, the perception of risk seems to be higher in women than in men. In relation to age, risk perception is higher in adults between 18 and 44 years old.

The finding about the reason for not drinking and driving supports the already evident need for an integrative approach to developing sustainable interventions, combining a range of measures that can be implemented together. In this way, sustainable measures against alcohol and impaired driving should continue to include a mix of approaches, such as legislation, enforcement, risk reduction and education, but focus efforts more closely on strategies aimed at raising awareness and changing behavior and cultural views on alcohol and impaired driving.

Almost all the drivers surveyed are well aware that driving after drinking any alcoholic beverage is a criminal offense. They also consider that this is a type of infraction that should be punished harshly. In this respect, they assign nine points on a scale of ten possible.

Finally, with regard to the type of sanctions, 90% of drivers think that driving drunk is punishable by a fine. 96.4% consider that it may result in temporary or permanent suspension of driving license, and 70% believe that it can be punished with imprisonment.

In any case, there are several limitations of this study. This was a population-based study of Spanish drivers; there is possibly a lack of generalizability of this population to other settings.

Another possible limitation of this study is the use of self-report questionnaires to derive information rather than using structured interviews. Similarly, self-reported instruments may be less accurate than objective measures of adherence as a result of social desirability bias.

In Spain, various traffic accident prevention programs have been implemented in recent years. Some of them were alcohol-focused, designed to prevent driving under the influence and to inform the Spanish population about the dangers associated with this kind of risk behavior.

As a result, many Spanish drivers seem to be sensitized to the risk of driving drunk. As revealed in our survey, many Spanish drivers never drive under the influence of alcohol, and many of them identify DUI as maximum risk behavior. This shows that a high percentage of the Spanish population know and avoid the risks of DUI.

In any case, the reality is far from ideal, and one out of four drivers has committed this offense at least once. When asked why they did it, the two major risk factors of DUI we identified were the lack of an alternative means of transport and the influence of meals on alcohol consumption. Both situations, especially the latter, occur frequently, almost daily, while it is true that the amount of alcohol consumed in the former is considerably higher and therefore more dangerous.

In addition, most drivers are aware of the dangers of driving under the influence, and they tend to avoid the risk of accident or penalty for this reason. Some drivers never drive under the influence, to avoid a possible accident. To a lesser extent, some do not drive under the influence to avoid a possible fine. They usually think that the possibility of sanction in the event of DUI is so high that they will be fined every two times they risk driving drunk.

Moreover, drivers know the legislation regulating DUI and they believe that the current penalty for DUI is strong enough. Nevertheless, even though almost all the drivers that were fined for this reason say they changed their behavior after the event, nine out of ten drivers would penalize this kind of offense even more strongly.

Knowing how alcohol consumption impairs safety and driving skills, being aware of the associated risks, knowing the traffic regulations concerning DUI and penalizing it strongly are not enough. Many drivers habitually drive after consuming alcohol and this type of traffic infraction is still far from being definitively eradicated.

Additional efforts are needed for better management of a problem with such important social and practical consequences. Efforts should be focused on measures which are complementary to legislation and enforcement, increasing their effectiveness, such as education, awareness and community mobilization; Alcolock™; accessibility to alcohol or brief interventions.

Abbreviations

• Driving under the influence

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank the Audi Corporate Social Responsibility program, Attitudes, for sponsoring the basic research. Also thanks to Mayte Duce for the revisions.

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Francisco Alonso, Juan C Pastor & Cristina Esteban

FACTHUM.lab (Human Factor and Road Safety), INTRAS (University Research Institute on Traffic and Road Safety), University of Valencia, Serpis 29, 46022, Valencia, Spain

Luis Montoro

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All authors contributed to the design of the study and also wrote and approved the final manuscript. FA drew up the design of the study with the help of CE; the rest of the authors also contributed. JCP and LM were in charge of the data revision. JCP and CE also drafted the manuscript. FA performed the statistical analysis. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Alonso, F., Pastor, J.C., Montoro, L. et al. Driving under the influence of alcohol: frequency, reasons, perceived risk and punishment. Subst Abuse Treat Prev Policy 10 , 11 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1186/s13011-015-0007-4

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Clinical Action against Drunk Driving

* E-mail: [email protected]

Affiliations Department of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Evaluative Clinical Sciences Program, Sunnybrook Research Institute, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Institute for Clinical Evaluative Sciences, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Division of General Internal Medicine, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Center for Leading Injury Prevention Practice Education & Research, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Affiliations Department of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Institute for Health Policy Management and Evaluation, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Department of Medicine, Mount Sinai Hospital and University Health Network, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

• Donald A. Redelmeier, 
• Allan S. Detsky

Published: February 14, 2017

• https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002231
• Reader Comments

Citation: Redelmeier DA, Detsky AS (2017) Clinical Action against Drunk Driving. PLoS Med 14(2): e1002231. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002231

Copyright: © 2017 Redelmeier, Detsky. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Funding: This project was supported by a Canada Research Chair in Medical Decision Sciences, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and the BrightFocus Foundation. No funding bodies had any role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Abbreviations: IRTAD, International Traffic Safety Data and Analysis Group; MADD, Mothers Against Drunk Driving; NHTSA, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration; OECD, Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development

Provenance: Commissioned; not externally-peer reviewed

In 2014, over 100,000 people in the United States were hospitalized because of alcohol-related traffic crashes, and 9,967 died (exceeding the 6,721 US deaths from HIV in the same year) [ 1 , 2 ]. On 17 March 2017, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) plans to promote a safety campaign against drunk driving. Past estimates suggest that law enforcement against drunk driving reduces traffic fatalities by 20% and that high-probability detection is more effective than high-severity punishment [ 3 , 4 ]. Yet, 12 states in the US, including the large states of Texas and Minnesota, prohibit random sobriety checkpoints, and the remaining have uneven efforts against drunk driving [ 5 ]. This Perspective identifies some groups with a vested interest in preventing drunk driving, describes reasons for the relative inaction, and proposes more action by physicians.

Traditionally, physicians and allied health care providers have deferred to others about how to address the health risks of drunk driving. One explanation is that drunk driving is a behavioral choice, and behavioral change is difficult to effect in a time-limited clinical encounter [ 6 ]. Moreover, preventive care may provide less evident benefit to the patient than prescribing an acid blocker, for example, to treat symptomatic alcohol-induced gastritis. While a pregnant woman who drinks alcohol is likely to be warned by her obstetrician or midwife on the risks to fetal development, most patients in our experience who are prone to drunk driving are easily missed because physicians rarely ask about drunk driving, despite often asking about alcohol. As a consequence, standard care may fail to identify this prevalent, modifiable, and serious health risk.

Vehicle manufacturers are the most powerful commercial group that can promote traffic safety. Over time, this industry has carefully developed and marketed technologies to protect drivers, such as seat belts, airbags, antilock brakes, and safety glass. Currently, the main technology to prevent drunk driving is an ignition interlock that forces drivers to have a breath test before engine engagement. This device, now imposed only on the vehicles of convicted drunk drivers, is unlikely to be adopted broadly any time soon unless manufacturers want to boast that they make the safest cars for those prone to drunk driving. The net result is that vehicle regulators in the US are unable to rely on manufacturer innovations or economic forces to prevent drunk driving.

Other large groups have even less incentive to promote sobriety while driving. Alcohol manufacturers promote “responsible drinking,” which is a vacuous tautology because adverse events can be deemed “irresponsible” by rhetorical hindsight. Celebrities in the entertainment industry are occasionally charged with drunk driving yet rarely express enduring regret. Lawyers gain little financial benefit from deterring drunk drivers, whereas some profit substantially by defending those who have deep pockets and are charged with drunk driving. Individual police officers themselves sometimes consider traffic enforcement as low-prestige work with little career satisfaction [ 7 ]. Driving enthusiasts argue that enforcement mostly inconveniences safe drivers to catch a few deviants. Those caught driving drunk are rarely grateful for the penalties.

Sometimes medical science can inspire behavior change, and drunk driving could seem amenable to research because of the large number of incidents. A rigorous clinical trial, however, cannot be conducted unless broad regions are willing to implement interventions in a thorough manner. An epidemiological analysis contrasting different states would also be easily misinterpreted because of dissimilarities across regions and diversity within regions (for example, the risk of dying in an alcohol-related traffic crash is three times higher in South Carolina than in New Jersey even though both states allow random sobriety checkpoints) [ 1 ]. Because individuals are not randomly assigned to driving locations, furthermore, the confounders are almost boundless [ 8 ]. These research limitations mean that scientific evidence is unlikely to cause people to stop drunk driving [ 9 ].

Activism and Politics

The most prominent body advocating change has been Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), a citizen group with deeply motivated members [ 10 ]. The mission of MADD is to “stop drunk driving, support the victims of this violent crime, and prevent underage drinking.” MADD has successfully pushed for drunk-driving laws, increased public awareness, designated-driver initiatives, alcohol ignition interlock programs, and victim impact panels. Yet, MADD is mostly a volunteer organization, with fewer than 500 employees. MADD has also been criticized for having administrative costs and for shifting towards broader prohibitions against alcohol consumption [ 11 ]. Ultimately, MADD has no power to enforce drunk-driving laws.

Politicians in the US seldom discuss traffic safety with the same zeal that they direct at debates on economic growth, domestic terrorism, public scandals, gun deaths, climate change, and other public-policy priorities. Indeed, making a political issue of drunk driving can carry particular risks because the historical failure of prohibition decades ago (1920 to 1933) means that a well-intentioned politician is easily ridiculed or mischaracterized as being antialcohol [ 11 ]. A US politician who seeks re-election will rarely promise action against drunk driving. The US political process, therefore, exchanges safety for freedom and tolerates a remarkably high rate of alcohol-related traffic fatalities relative to other countries ( Fig 1 ).

• PPT PowerPoint slide
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• TIFF original image

Histogram of alcohol-related traffic fatalities in the US and other countries. The vertical axis shows ten countries sequenced by death rates. The horizontal axis shows alcohol-related traffic deaths as fatalities per million population annually. Data are from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Road Safety Annual Report 2015 authored by the International Traffic Safety Data and Analysis Group (IRTAD) and available at the following website: http://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/transport/road-safety-annual-report-2015_irtad-2015-en . The death rates were calculated from Table 1.3 of the report and individual country alcohol profiles. The results show high rates of alcohol-related traffic fatalities in the US relative to other countries.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002231.g001

Medical Initiatives

Health care providers are perhaps the one remaining large powerful group with a profound commitment to health. Physicians and allied life-saving professionals sometimes advocate to reduce cigarette smoking, drug abuse, domestic violence, or other societal epidemics. Drunk driving causes major mortality and morbidity that is utterly preventable, unlike many advanced diseases. The losses are also tragic because offenders usually have no malicious intent yet many lives are irrevocably altered (including their own). Because the market forces for commercial industries run in a different direction, physicians could advocate more for what works against drunk driving ( Box 1 ) [ 12 ]. Civic advocacy, however, rarely leads to immediate gratification and sometimes deteriorates into dissenting backlash [ 13 ].

Box 1. Physician Strategies to Prevent Drunk Driving

• Alcohol screening and brief interventions for patients with alcohol problems
• Physician warnings for patients who sometimes drink and drive
• Treatment of patients diagnosed with alcohol dependence
• Counseling of patients not to ride with drunk drivers
• Supporting enforcement of laws against drunk driving
• Promoting sobriety checkpoints in local communities
• Lending voice to mass media campaigns against drunk driving
• Joining multicomponent interventions in coalitions of community group members

Patients do not want to become traffic statistics, tend to listen to their physicians, and take advice seriously. When asked about alcohol consumption, for example, patients often respond truthfully inside a private medical relationship. A simple extension, therefore, might be for physicians to also ask patients about past episodes of drinking and driving. Patients identified, in turn, could be recommended a taxi service, ride-sharing option (e.g., Uber and Lyft), or a designated-driver substitute. The intent is to suggest safer alternatives so patients who drink do not need to drive [ 14 ]. The intent is not to preach sobriety or to betray patient trust. Ideally, these harm-reduction strategies should be planned in advance because later inebriation will predictably impair judgment.

In Canada, recent financial incentives have been effective at motivating physicians’ warnings for medically unfit drivers and reducing the risk of a traffic crash for patients diagnosed with alcoholism [ 15 ]. A direct incentive for physicians’ warnings against drunk driving could be considered to address the problem in the US (the fee in Canada is C$36.25). Physicians need to first realize, of course, that an average drunk driver has a 5%–15% lifetime risk of dying in a traffic crash, physician warnings lead to a one-third relative reduction in the subsequent risk of a serious traffic crash, and most adults who drink and drive visit a physician in the year before dying [ 16 ]. The epidemic of drunk driving needs to be addressed in the US, and 17 March 2017 is a time for physicians to think more about clinical action against drunk driving.

Acknowledgments

The views expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care.

• 1. Department of Transportation (US), National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). Traffic Safety Facts 2014 data: alcohol-impaired driving. Washington, DC: NHTSA; 2015. http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/812231.pdf
• 2. Department of Health and Human Services (US). Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Deaths: Final Data for 2014: Table 10. Washington, DC: CDC; 2016. http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr65/nvsr65_04.pdf
• View Article
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• 10. Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD). Mission Statement. Irving, Texas: MADD National Office; 2016. http://www.madd.org/about-us/
• 11. Lerner BH. One for the road: Drunk driving since 1900. 1 st ed. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press; 2011.
• 12. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). What works: Strategies to reduce or prevent drunk driving. Atlanta:US Department of Health & Human Services; 2016. http://www.cdc.gov/motorvehiclesafety/impaired_driving/strategies.html

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Research Topics About Drunk Driving

• Penalties for Drunk Driving: Criminal Charges for Causing Death While Driving Under the Influence
• Campaigns to Combat Drunk Driving
• Alcohol-Impaired Driving: Cause, Effect, and Control
• The Relationship between Breath Testing and Drunk Driving Demand
• Evidence on Punishment and Deterrence from Drunk Driving
• Seatbelt Use Following More Stringent Drunk Driving Laws
• Managing the Problem of Teenage Drinking and Driving
• The Intentional and Unintentional Consequences of Drunk Driving Policies
• Increase Penalties for Repeated Drunk Driving Offenders
• Preferred Drunk Driving Punishment Structure
• Alcohol and Drunk Driving Are Among the Leading Causes of Death.
• Technology Against Drunk Driving for U.S. Automakers
• Death Penalty for Drunk Driving: Should Drunk Drivers Who Kill Someone Get the Death Penalty?
• Repeat Offenders Can Be Prevented from Drunk Driving
• The Suffering and Pain That Drunk Driving Causes.
• State-Specific Drunk Driving Laws and Penalties in the United States
• The Necessity for More Stringent Drunk Driving Laws
• A View from the Economics of Crime on Preventing Drunk Driving Fatalities
• Evidence from Underage Drunk Driving Laws Concerning Youth Alcohol Use and Risky Sexual Behavior
• The Problem of Teenage Drinking and Driving in the United States: Causes and Solutions

Drunk Driving Essay Titles

• Relationships between Drunk Driving and Traffic Crashes
• Aggressive Strategies to Prevent Drunk Driving
• Impaired Driving Laws and Traffic Fatalities
• The Consequences of Drunk Driving on Society
• Drunk Driving and Drug Use Pose A Substantial Danger to Public Safety
• Deaths from Irresponsible Drinking and Drunk Driving
• Effects and Causes of Drunk Driving
• The Terrible Tragedy That Drunk Driving Has Caused in the United States
• The Reality of Drunk Driving: Why Drunk Driving Laws Should Be Stricter
• Dangers and Need for Preventing Drunk Driving
• Drunk Driving Following the Implementation of Smoking Bans in Bars
• Government and Society Should Collaborate to Eliminate Drunk Driving
• America Needs Better Drunk Driving Laws
• Mothers Against Drunk Driving: from the Ground Up to Policy
• Evidence from Underage Drunk Driving Laws Regarding Heavy Alcohol Use and the Commitment of Nuisance Crime
• Psychological Foundations of Drunk Driving
• Comparison of Mothers Against Drunk Driving and the National Urban League
• Preventing Teen Drinking and Driving
• License Revocation and Impaired Driving
• Drunk Driving Fatalities: Exigent Solution
• What Is Teenage Drunk Driving, and What Happens When the Phrase “Drunk Driving” Is Heard?
• Why Does Drunk Driving Occur?
• Why Should Drunk Driving Laws Be Made Stricter?
• How Has Drinking and Driving Affected A Student?
• Did Ontario’s Zero Tolerance and Graduated Licensing Laws Reduce Drunk Driving Among Teenagers?
• Can Police Deter Drunk Driving?
• What Are the Effects and Cause Essays on Drunk Driving?
• What Is the Issue with Drinking and Driving?
• What Are the Five Telltale Signs of An Impaired Driver?
• What Is the Definition of Drunk Driving?
• Is It A Drunk Driver or A Drunken Driver?
• Why Do Drunk Drivers Manage to Survive?
• Why Are Drunk Drivers Treated So Lightly?
• What Is the Remedy for Drunk Driving?
• How Can You Stop Drinking and Driving?
• What Do Drivers Need Three Seconds to Accomplish?
• How Long After Drinking Is It Safe to Drive?
• What Are the Penalties for A First Offense of Driving Under the Influence?
• Do You Accumulate Points for Drunk Driving?
• What Are Some Common Driving Distractions?
• What Are the Consequences of Drunk Driving?
• How Might One Best Defend Against A Drunk Driving Charge?
• What Do Police Frequently Look for in Drunk Drivers on the Road?
• Why Does America Need to Improve Its Drunk Driving Laws?
• How Do We Tackle the Problem of Teenage Drunk Driving?
• What Are Deterring Drunk Driving Fatalities?
• Did Ontario’s Zero Tolerance and Graduated Licensing Laws Reduce Drunk Driving Among Teens?
• What Are the Psychological Roots of Driving Under the Influence?
• What Are the Argumentative Effects of Free Drunk Driving on Society?
• What Are Effective Punishments for Drunk Driving in Wisconsin?

Research Topics on Domestic Violence

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6.7: A Student Example- “Preventing Drunk Driving by Enforcement” by Daniel Marvins

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The assignment that was the basis for this essay asked students to write a “first person narrative” about the research project they would be working on for the semester. “It was really important to me think about a lot of different ideas and topics because I was worried that I might not be able to find enough research or stick with it,” Marvins said. “This project helped me think this through.”

Preventing Drunk Driving by Enforcement

Despite the fact that Americans are more aware of the problems of drunk driving than we were in the past, it is still a serious problem in the U.S. While educating everyone about the dangers of drunk driving is certainly important, I am interested in researching and writing about different ways to more strictly enforce drunk driving laws.

My working thesis for my research project is “While stronger enforcement measures to control drunk driving might be controversial and a violation of individual rights, they have to be enacted to stop drunk driving deaths.” By “stronger enforcement measures,” I mean things like police check points, lower legal levels of blood-alcohol, required breatholizer tests, less control on police searching cars, and stronger jail sentences.

I got the idea to focus on this topic by working on some of the different brainstorming techniques we talked about in class. I tried several different brainstorming techniques including freewriting and clustering. For me, the most useful technique was making a list of ideas and then talking it over with the other students in my group.

We all agreed that drunk driving would be a good topic, but I thought about writing about other topics too. For example, I think it would also be interesting to write about gun control laws, especially how they might effect deaths with kids and guns. I also thought it might be interesting to do research on the tobacco business and the lawsuits different states are conducting against them.

But I am more interested in exploring issues about drunk driving for a couple of different reasons. First, I think drunk driving is an issue that a lot of people can relate to because most people know that it is dangerous and it is a bad idea. For example, we hear and read messages about not driving drunk in a lot of different advertisements. Still, even though everyone knows it is a bad idea, there are still a lot of deaths and injuries that result from drunk driving.

Second, I’m interested in doing research on stronger enforcement of drunk driving laws because I am not sure I have made my own mind up about it. Like everyone else, I of course think drunk driving is bad and police and society should do everything they can do to prevent people from driving drunk. On the other hand, I also think it’s bad for police to pull over everyone they think might be drunk even when they don’t know for sure. Strong enforcement might stop a lot of drunk driving, but it also gives police more chances to violate individual liberties and rights.

I have done a little bit of research already and I don’t think I’m going to have any problem finding evidence to support my topic. Drunk driving seems to be a pretty common topic with a lot of different things written about it. I did a quick search of the library’s databases and the World Wide Web and I found thousands of different articles. I skimmed the titles and it seemed like a lot of them would be very relevant and useful for my subject.

Drunk driving is a serious problem and everyone agrees that we should do something about it. The question is what should “it” be? My hope is that through my research, I will learn more about how stronger enforcement of drunk driving laws can curtail drunk driving, and I hope to be able to convince my readers of this, too.

Home — Essay Samples — Law, Crime & Punishment — Crime — Drunk Driving

Essay Examples on Drunk Driving

Drunk driving essay - raising awareness and saving lives 🚫🍻.

Drunk driving isn't just a topic for essays; it's a matter of life and death. Writing an essay on drunk driving is more than an academic exercise; it's a chance to shed light on a pressing issue that affects countless lives. So, why should you write an essay about drunk driving? Let's explore the importance together! 🚫🍻

Drunk Driving Essay Topics for "Drunk Driving" 📝

Selecting the right essay topic is crucial for making a meaningful impact. Here's how to pick one:

Drunk Driving Argumentative Essay 🤨

Argumentative essays on drunk driving require you to defend a viewpoint or argument. Here are ten compelling topics:

• 1. Argue for stricter penalties for first-time drunk driving offenders to deter potential future incidents.
• 2. Defend your perspective on whether alcohol manufacturers should bear some responsibility for drunk driving incidents linked to their products.
• 3. Debate the effectiveness of mandatory alcohol education programs for individuals convicted of drunk driving.
• 4. Argue for or against lowering the legal blood alcohol content (BAC) limit for drivers to reduce drunk driving accidents.
• 5. Defend the idea that drunk driving should be considered a felony rather than a misdemeanor, regardless of previous offenses.
• 6. Debate the role of ride-sharing services and their impact on reducing drunk driving incidents.
• 7. Argue for implementing advanced alcohol detection systems in vehicles to prevent drunk driving altogether.
• 8. Defend your perspective on whether alcohol advertisements should carry warning labels about the dangers of drunk driving.
• 9. Debate the impact of community-based initiatives and education programs in reducing drunk driving rates.
• 10. Argue for the responsibility of friends and family members to report loved ones who are habitual drunk drivers to authorities.

Drunk Driving Cause and Effect Essay 🤯

Cause and effect essays on drunk driving explore the reasons behind incidents and their consequences. Here are ten topics to consider:

• 1. Analyze the causes and effects of alcohol addiction and its correlation with repeat drunk driving offenses.
• 2. Examine how stricter DUI laws and penalties have contributed to a decrease in drunk driving accidents.
• 3. Investigate the effects of alcohol impairment on decision-making and reaction times while driving.
• 4. Analyze the causes and consequences of underage drinking and its association with future drunk driving incidents.
• 5. Examine how public awareness campaigns and advocacy groups have influenced societal attitudes toward drunk driving.
• 6. Investigate the impact of drunk driving on the families and communities of victims and offenders.
• 7. Analyze the causes of variations in drunk driving rates among different regions and demographics.
• 8. Examine the effects of technology, such as breathalyzers and ride-sharing apps, on reducing drunk driving accidents.
• 9. Investigate the consequences of legal measures, such as ignition interlock devices, in preventing drunk driving recidivism.
• 10. Analyze the causes and effects of alcohol-related accidents and fatalities on society's healthcare and legal systems.

Drunk Driving Opinion Essay 😌

Opinion essays on drunk driving allow you to express your subjective viewpoints. Here are ten topics to consider:

• 1. Share your opinion on whether first-time drunk driving offenders should receive mandatory counseling and rehabilitation instead of jail time.
• 2. Discuss your perspective on the responsibility of bartenders and alcohol servers in preventing drunk driving incidents.
• 3. Express your thoughts on the importance of parental guidance and education in reducing underage drinking and its associated risks.
• 4. Debate the significance of advocating for the installation of more sobriety checkpoints to deter drunk driving.
• 5. Share your views on the role of media and entertainment in influencing societal attitudes toward alcohol consumption and drunk driving.
• 6. Discuss the impact of personal stories and testimonials from victims of drunk driving accidents in raising awareness and effecting change.
• 7. Express your opinion on the responsibility of businesses to provide alternative transportation options for patrons leaving their establishments intoxicated.
• 8. Debate the merits of stricter monitoring and enforcement of DUI laws, such as random breath testing, to curb drunk driving incidents.
• 9. Share your perspective on whether individuals convicted of drunk driving should have their driver's licenses permanently revoked.
• 10. Discuss your favorite anti-drunk driving campaign or initiative and its effectiveness in your community.

Drunk Driving Informative Essay 🧐

Informative essays on drunk driving aim to educate readers. Here are ten informative topics to explore:

• 1. Provide an in-depth analysis of the historical evolution of DUI laws and regulations in the United States.
• 2. Explore the psychological and physiological effects of alcohol consumption on driving abilities and judgment.
• 3. Investigate the role of advocacy groups and non-profit organizations in combating drunk driving and supporting victims.
• 4. Analyze the impact of alcohol awareness programs in schools and communities on reducing underage drinking and drunk driving incidents.
• 5. Examine the effects of alcohol addiction treatment programs on the rehabilitation and recovery of individuals with multiple DUI convictions.
• 6. Investigate the consequences of repeat drunk driving offenses on an individual's criminal record and future employment prospects.
• 7. Provide insights into the technology and methods used in law enforcement for detecting and apprehending drunk drivers.
• 8. Analyze the connection between blood alcohol content (BAC) levels and impairment while driving, with a focus on legal limits and penalties.
• 9. Examine the effects of victim impact panels and offender education programs on reducing recidivism among drunk drivers.
• 10. Investigate the therapeutic benefits of counseling and support groups for individuals struggling with alcohol addiction and its relation to drunk driving incidents.

Drunk Driving Essay Example 📄

Drunk driving thesis statement examples 📜.

Here are five examples of strong thesis statements for your drunk driving essay:

• 1. "In a world where the consequences of a single choice can be catastrophic, addressing the issue of drunk driving is not just a responsibility but a moral imperative."
• 2. "Drunk driving is a grave societal issue that demands immediate attention, as it affects not only the lives of individuals but also the safety of our communities and roadways."
• 3. "Our pursuit of a world with zero tolerance for drunk driving begins with acknowledging the devastating effects of this behavior and implementing comprehensive measures to combat it."
• 4. "The fight against drunk driving is a collective responsibility, and as a society, we must unite to enforce stricter laws, raise awareness, and protect innocent lives."
• 5. "As we delve into the complexities of drunk driving, it becomes evident that our commitment to eradicating this menace is not just a legal obligation but a moral duty."

Drunk Driving Essay Introduction Examples 🚀

Here are three captivating introduction paragraphs to kickstart your essay:

• 1. "In a world where the steering wheel becomes a weapon when in the wrong hands, the fight against drunk driving is a battle for lives, a battle that each of us must engage in. As we embark on this essay journey into the heart of this critical issue, we unravel the layers of responsibility, awareness, and change."
• 2. "Picture a night marred by the recklessness of a single decision, where blurred vision leads to shattered lives. Drunk driving, a menace that haunts our roads, demands our immediate attention. Join us in this essay's exploration as we navigate the twists and turns of this life-and-death challenge."
• 3. "Amid the clinking glasses and carefree laughter, a dark shadow looms on the horizon: the specter of drunk driving. As we venture into the heart of this essay, we are reminded that the responsibility to combat this issue lies not only with lawmakers but with every individual who values life and safety."

Drunk Driving Conclusion Examples 🌟

Conclude your essay with impact using these examples:

• 1. "As we draw the curtains on this exploration of drunk driving, we recognize that our collective responsibility is the key to change. The journey to safer roads continues, with each essay, each advocacy effort, and each responsible choice propelling us closer to a world without the devastating consequences of drunk driving."
• 2. "In the final stretch of our drunk driving essay, we stand at the crossroads of awareness and action. The road ahead is clear: we must steer away from complacency, accelerate our efforts, and ensure that the tireless pursuit of safer roads never loses momentum."
• 3. "As the echoes of our essay on drunk driving linger, we are reminded that the fight against this perilous behavior extends beyond words on a page. It is a call to action, a commitment to change, and an unwavering dedication to preserving lives and safeguarding our communities."

Persuasive Speech on Drunk Driving

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The Severe Consequences of Drunk Driving

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How Drunk Driving Changed My Life

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Drinking and Driving Issues in Canada

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Drunk driving refers to the act of operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol, impairing one's ability to safely control the vehicle and posing a significant risk to oneself and others on the road. It involves driving with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) that exceeds the legal limit set by the jurisdiction, typically measured as a percentage.

Drunk driving is a serious issue that poses a significant threat to road safety in the United States. It refers to the act of operating a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol, impairing one's ability to drive safely. This dangerous behavior has severe consequences, both for the individuals involved and for society as a whole. Statistics reveal the alarming impact of drunk driving. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), in the US, an average of 10,000 lives are lost annually due to alcohol-impaired driving accidents. Drunk driving is not only a risk to the driver but also to innocent pedestrians, passengers, and other drivers sharing the road. It can lead to devastating injuries, lifelong disabilities, and emotional trauma for victims and their families. Efforts to combat drunk driving include strict enforcement of DUI (Driving Under the Influence) laws, public awareness campaigns, and initiatives promoting responsible alcohol consumption. The implementation of measures like sobriety checkpoints, ignition interlock devices, and education programs aim to reduce the incidence of drunk driving and protect lives.

MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) is an organization founded by Candy Lightner in 1980 after her 13-year-old daughter was killed by a drunk driver. MADD has played a significant role in raising awareness about the dangers of drunk driving and advocating for stricter laws and penalties. Liam Neeson, the renowned actor, has been involved in campaigns against drunk driving following the tragic death of his wife, Natasha Richardson, in a skiing accident involving alcohol. Neeson has shared his personal story to emphasize the importance of responsible alcohol consumption and the devastating consequences of impaired driving. Jacqueline Saburido, a survivor of a drunk driving accident, became a prominent advocate for raising awareness about the dangers of drunk driving. Despite suffering severe burns and permanent injuries, she dedicated her life to sharing her story and educating others about the devastating impact of impaired driving.

Drunk driving has a long and troubling historical context. The issue gained significant attention in the United States during the Prohibition era in the 1920s when the production, sale, and distribution of alcoholic beverages were banned. Despite the ban, illegal speakeasies and bootlegging operations flourished, leading to an increase in drunk driving incidents. In the mid-20th century, as automobiles became more prevalent, the dangers of drunk driving became more apparent. However, it wasn't until the 1980s that the issue gained widespread public attention. The implementation of stricter laws and public awareness campaigns aimed at curbing drunk driving began to take place. Organizations like MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) emerged as influential advocates for change. Advancements in technology, such as the introduction of breathalyzer tests and ignition interlock devices, have also played a crucial role in combating drunk driving. These devices help prevent intoxicated individuals from operating a vehicle, reducing the risk of accidents and fatalities. Today, efforts to address drunk driving continue, with law enforcement agencies, advocacy groups, and government initiatives working together to raise awareness, enforce laws, and provide support for victims and their families.

Public opinion on drunk driving is largely united in its condemnation of the behavior. The vast majority of individuals recognize the severe risks and consequences associated with driving under the influence of alcohol. It is widely understood that drunk driving poses a significant threat to public safety and can result in devastating accidents, injuries, and loss of life. The public's stance on drunk driving has evolved over time. In the past, there may have been a more lenient or tolerant attitude towards the behavior. However, with increased awareness and education about the dangers of drunk driving, public opinion has shifted towards a zero-tolerance approach. Today, there is widespread support for strict laws and penalties targeting drunk driving offenses. Public opinion favors stringent law enforcement measures, such as sobriety checkpoints and breathalyzer tests, to deter individuals from getting behind the wheel while intoxicated. Furthermore, there is growing recognition of the importance of prevention, intervention, and rehabilitation programs to address the root causes of drunk driving.

Education and Awareness: Promote educational campaigns that highlight the dangers of drunk driving and raise public awareness about its consequences. Strict Law Enforcement: Implement and enforce laws that penalize individuals caught driving under the influence, including sobriety checkpoints and license suspension. Ignition Interlock Devices: Mandate the use of breathalyzer devices in vehicles, which require drivers to pass a breath test before starting the car. Designated Drivers: Encourage the use of designated drivers who remain sober and are responsible for driving others home safely. Alternative Transportation: Promote the availability and accessibility of alternative transportation options, such as public transportation, ridesharing services, taxis, or designated driving programs. Community Support: Establish community-based programs and initiatives that offer support, counseling, and treatment options for individuals struggling with alcohol abuse. Responsible Beverage Service: Train bartenders and servers to identify and refuse service to intoxicated patrons, preventing them from driving while impaired. Social Norms Campaigns: Shift societal attitudes towards drunk driving through campaigns that emphasize responsible drinking and discourage peer pressure. Parental Involvement: Educate parents about the risks of underage drinking and empower them to have open conversations with their children about responsible alcohol consumption.

One notable example is the film "MADD: Mothers Against Drunk Driving" (1983), which tells the story of Candy Lightner, the founder of the organization Mothers Against Drunk Driving. The film highlights the personal tragedy she experienced when her daughter was killed by a drunk driver and her subsequent efforts to combat drunk driving. Another example is the television show "DUI" (Driving Under the Influence) that aired from 2004 to 2008. The show followed real-life cases of individuals arrested for drunk driving, providing a glimpse into the legal consequences and personal impact of such actions. Public service announcements (PSAs) have also played a significant role in addressing drunk driving. For instance, the impactful "Friends Don't Let Friends Drive Drunk" campaign by the Ad Council in the 1980s urged people to intervene and prevent friends from driving under the influence.

1. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), approximately 28 people in the United States die every day in motor vehicle crashes involving an alcohol-impaired driver. This accounts for one death every 52 minutes. 2. Studies have shown that the risk of being involved in a car accident increases significantly with higher blood alcohol concentration (BAC) levels. For example, drivers with a BAC of 0.08% (the legal limit in many countries) are four times more likely to crash compared to sober drivers. At a BAC of 0.15%, the risk increases to about 25 times higher. 3. Despite increased awareness and efforts to prevent drunk driving, it remains a persistent problem. Based on data provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), it was reported that in the year 2019 alone, an estimated 10,142 individuals lost their lives in motor vehicle accidents involving alcohol impairment in the United States. This accounted for nearly 29% of all traffic-related deaths that year.

Drunk driving is an incredibly important topic to write an essay about due to its profound impact on individuals and society as a whole. This issue poses serious risks to public safety, leading to tragic accidents, injuries, and loss of lives. Exploring the topic allows us to delve into the complex factors contributing to drunk driving and understand its consequences from various perspectives. An essay on drunk driving enables us to raise awareness about the dangers associated with impaired driving and the importance of responsible behavior. It provides an opportunity to discuss the legal, social, and ethical aspects surrounding this issue, including laws, regulations, and public attitudes. Moreover, addressing this topic can shed light on prevention strategies, such as education campaigns, stricter penalties, and technological advancements like ignition interlock systems. By writing about drunk driving, we can encourage open dialogue, prompt policy discussions, and advocate for change. Ultimately, it serves as a call to action, urging individuals to make responsible choices, support initiatives aimed at preventing drunk driving, and work towards creating safer roads for everyone.

1. Beck, K. H., Rauch, W. J., & Baker, E. A. (2014). State alcohol laws and motor vehicle fatalities revisited. Accident Analysis & Prevention, 73, 220-228. 2. Center for Disease Control and Prevention. (2018). Impaired driving: Get the facts. Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/motorvehiclesafety/impaired_driving/impaired-drv_factsheet.html 3. Fell, J. C., Scherer, M., & Thomas, S. (2017). A meta-analysis of the effectiveness of mandatory alcohol ignition interlock installation. Journal of Safety Research, 61, 177-182. 4. Hingson, R. W., & Winter, M. R. (2003). Epidemiology and consequences of drinking and driving. Alcohol Research & Health, 27(1), 63-78. 5. McCartt, A. T., Geary, L. L., & Nissen, W. J. (2004). Observational study of compliance with a state law requiring use of child restraints. Injury Prevention, 10(2), 112-116. 6. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. (2017). Traffic safety facts: Alcohol-impaired driving. Retrieved from https://crashstats.nhtsa.dot.gov/Api/Public/ViewPublication/812450 7. Shults, R. A., Elder, R. W., Sleet, D. A., Nichols, J. L., Alao, M. O., Carande-Kulis, V. G., ... & Reviews of Evidence on Interventions for Alcohol-Impaired Driving. (2001). Task Force on Community Preventive Services. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 21(4), 66-88. 8. Voas, R. B., Torres, P., Romano, E., & Lacey, J. H. (2012). Alcohol ignition interlock effects on a national scale: A 10-year follow-up. Traffic Injury Prevention, 13(6), 594-600. 9. Williams, A. F., & Wells, J. K. (1995). Characteristics of drunk driving recidivists. Addiction, 90(7), 907-914. 10. Zador, P. L., Krawchuk, S. A., & Voas, R. B. (2000). Alcohol-related relative risk of driver fatalities and driver involvement in fatal crashes in relation to driver age and gender: An update using 1996 data. Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, 61(3), 387-395.

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Risky Driving

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Drunk Driving

Every day, about 37 people in the United States die in drunk-driving crashes — that's one person every 39 minutes. In 2021, 13,384 people died in alcohol-impaired driving traffic deaths — a 14% increase from 2020. These deaths were all preventable.

Buzzed Driving Is Drunk Driving

• Alcohol Effects

Risk Factors

Consequences.

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How alcohol affects driving ability

Alcohol is a substance that reduces the function of the brain, impairing thinking, reasoning and muscle coordination. All these abilities are essential to operating a vehicle safely.

As alcohol levels rise in a person’s system, the negative effects on the central nervous system increase. Alcohol is absorbed directly through the walls of the stomach and small intestine. Then it passes into the bloodstream where it accumulates until it is metabolized by the liver. A person's alcohol level is measured by the weight of the alcohol in a certain volume of blood. This is called Blood Alcohol Concentration, or BAC. At a BAC of .08 grams of alcohol per deciliter (g/dL) of blood, crash risk increases exponentially. Because of this risk, it’s illegal in all 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico to drive with a BAC of .08 or higher, except in Utah where the BAC limit is .05. 

However, even a small amount of alcohol can affect driving ability. In 2021, there were 2,266 people killed in alcohol-related crashes where a driver had a BAC of .01 to .07 g/dL.

BAC is measured with a breathalyzer, a device that measures the amount of alcohol in a driver’s breath, or by a blood test.

The Effects of Blood Alcohol Concentration

Frequently asked questions, does the type of alcohol i drink affect my bac.

No. A drink is a drink. 

A standard drink equals about half an ounce of alcohol (.54 ounces, to be exact). This is the approximate amount of alcohol found in: 

• one shot of distilled spirits, or 
• one 5-ounce glass of wine, or 
• one 12-ounce beer.   

What affects my BAC?

How fast a person’s BAC rises varies based on a number of factors: 

• The number of drinks. The more you drink, the higher your BAC. 
• How fast you drink. When alcohol is consumed quickly, you will reach a higher BAC than when it is consumed over a longer period of time. 
• Your gender. Women generally have less water and more body fat per pound of body weight than men. Alcohol does not go into fat cells as easily as other cells, so more alcohol remains in the blood of women. 
• Your weight. The more you weigh, the more water is present in your body. This water dilutes the alcohol and lowers the BAC.
• Food in your stomach. Absorption will be slowed if you’ve had something to eat.   

Can I determine my BAC?

Because of the number of factors that affect BAC, it is very difficult to assess your own BAC or impairment. Even small amounts of alcohol affect one’s brain and the ability to drive. People often think they are “fine” after several drinks – but in fact, the failure to recognize alcohol impairment is often a symptom of impairment. 

While the lower stages of alcohol impairment are undetectable to others, the drinker knows vaguely when the “buzz” begins. A person will likely be too impaired to drive before looking – or maybe even feeling “drunk.”   

What impact does BAC have on my driving?

Know that alcohol steadily decreases a person’s ability to drive a motor vehicle safely. The more you drink, the greater the effect. As with BAC, the signs of impairment differ with the individual. 

Drivers with a BAC of .08 are approximately 4 times more likely to crash than drivers with a BAC of zero. At a BAC of .15, drivers are at least 12 times more likely to crash than drivers with a BAC of zero. The risk of crashing is even greater for young males.  

Driving After Drinking

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Driving after drinking is deadly. Yet it still continues to happen across the United States. If you drive while impaired, you could get arrested, or worse — be involved in a traffic crash that causes serious injury or death.

About 31% of all traffic crash fatalities in the United States involve drunk drivers (with BACs of .08 g/dL or higher). In 2021, there were 13,384 people killed in these preventable crashes. In fact, on average over the 10-year period from 2012-2021, about 10,850 people died every year in drunk-driving crashes.

In every state, it’s illegal to drive drunk, yet one person was killed in a drunk-driving crash every 39 minutes in the United States in 2021.

Car crashes are a leading cause of death for teens, and about a quarter of fatal crashes involve an underage drinking driver. In 2021, 27% of young drivers 15 to 20 years old who were killed in crashes had BACs of .01 g/dL or higher.

To reduce alcohol-related fatal crashes among youth, all states have adopted a minimum legal drinking age of 21. NHTSA estimates that minimum-drinking-age laws have saved 31,959 lives from 1975 to 2017.

In 2021, the highest percentage of drunk drivers (with BACs of .08 g/dL or higher) were the 21-to 24-year-old age group and 25-to-34-year old age groups. Men are most likely to be involved in this type of crash, with four male drunk drivers for every female drunk driver.

In 2021, 5,932 people operating a motorcycle were killed in traffic crashes. Of those motorcycle riders, 1,624 (29%) were drunk (BAC of .08 g/dL or higher). 

Motorcycle operators involved in fatal crashes were found to have the highest percentage (28%) of alcohol-impaired drivers than any other vehicle types. 

The 35-39 and 45-to-49 age groups had the highest percent, 35%, of drunk motorcycle riders killed in 2021.

Repeat offenders who drink and drive are a very real, very deadly problem. Drivers with BACs of .08 g/dL or higher involved in fatal crashes were 4 times more likely to have prior convictions for driving while impaired than were drivers with no alcohol (7% and 2%, respectively).

When it comes to drunk driving, it affects more than just the driver. In 2021, among children (14 and younger) killed in motor vehicle crashes, 25% were killed in drunk-driving crashes. Of those deaths, more than half the time (55%) the child killed was in the vehicle driven by the drunk driver.

In addition to the human toll drunk driving takes on our country, the financial impact is devastating: based on 2019 numbers, impaired-driving crashes cost the United States $68.9 billion annually.

Driving a vehicle while impaired is a dangerous crime. Tough enforcement of drunk-driving laws has been a major factor in reducing drunk-driving deaths since the 1980s. Charges range from misdemeanors to felony offenses, and penalties for impaired driving can include driver’s license revocation, fines, and jail time. It’s also extremely expensive. A first-time offense can cost the driver upwards of $10,000 in fines and legal fees.

Many states require offenders to install ignition interlock devices at the driver’s own expense. An ignition interlock device is a breath test device connected to a vehicle’s ignition. The vehicle cannot be operated unless the driver blows into the interlock and has a BAC below a pre-set low limit, usually .02 g/dL. NHTSA strongly supports the expansion of ignition interlocks as a proven technology that keeps drunk drivers from getting behind the wheel.

Responsible behavior

BEING A RESPONSIBLE DRIVER IS SIMPLE: IF YOU ARE DRINKING, DO NOT DRIVE.

• Plan your safe ride home before you start the party, choose a non-drinking friend as a designated driver.
• If someone you know has been drinking, do not let that person get behind the wheel. Take their keys and help them arrange a sober ride home. 
• If you drink, do not drive for any reason. Call a taxi, a ride-hailing service, or a sober friend. 
• If you’re hosting a party where alcohol will be served, make sure all guests leave with a sober driver.
• Always wear your seat belt — it’s your best defense against impaired drivers.

If you see an impaired driver on the road, contact local law enforcement. Your actions could help save someone’s life.

NHTSA is dedicated to eliminating risky behaviors on our nation's roads

NHTSA demonstrates its commitment to eliminating drunk driving through research, public awareness campaigns, and state safety grant programs. We will continue until there are zero drunk-driving crashes on our roadways.

Policy & Guidance

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Olson S, Gerstein DR. Alcohol in America: Taking Action to Prevent Abuse. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 1985.

Alcohol in America: Taking Action to Prevent Abuse.

• Hardcopy Version at National Academies Press

3 Preventing Drunk Driving

Drunk driving is an excellent example of both the need and the opportunity for prevention to be comprehensive. Clearly, laws against drunk driving, enforced by the police and adjudicated by the courts, must play a leading role in the effort to keep people from driving while drunk. But legal action alone cannot solve the problem. Many other strategies also have the potential to significantly reduce drunk driving. Together with the law, these strategies can have a major effect.

There can be no question that alcohol is a major contributor to the problem of traffic safety in the United States. In about half of the 44,000 fatalities caused by traffic accidents in 1984, the drivers or other people killed in the accident had alcohol in their blood (see Figure 3-1 ). But this statistic can be misleading. It does not mean that if no one ever drove after drinking, highway fatalities would be cut in half. As David Reed of Harvard University points out, "Drinking-driving countermeasures can be legitimate and useful government actions, but . . . even if such countermeasures were perfectly successful, the savings in lives, injuries, and property loss would be less than widely quoted figures would lead one to believe."

Traffic deaths occur more often in the evening and nighttime hours, when visibility is poor and drivers tend to be tired. Alcohol-related traffic fatalities are nearly twice as numerous on Friday and Saturday nights as on other nights, and they tend to (more...)

The reason, explains Reed, is that the presence of alcohol in an accident does not always mean that alcohol caused the accident. In many accidents that kill people who have been drinking, the alcohol plays a minor or insignificant role. Roadside testing by researchers has shown that an average of 10 to 20 percent of all drivers on the road have measurable levels of alcohol in their blood. It is inevitable that some of these people will be involved in fatal accidents, even if their drinking is not to blame.

Using several epidemiological studies of drunk driving, Reed has calculated a more accurate estimate of the number of deaths that could be prevented if no one ever drove after drinking. These studies compared the blood alcohol levels of drivers involved in accidents with the blood alcohol levels of drivers not involved in accidents (this latter control group was randomly selected at times and places similar to those at which the accidents occurred). The data show that 24 percent of the fatalities would not have occurred if the drivers had not been drinking. Similar calculations give average estimates of 12 percent for the number of disabling injuries that would be prevented and 6 percent for the amount of preventable property damage. Of course, these figures are only estimates. Several factors that could not be included in the calculations could force these percentages higher or lower, and the data are far from perfect.

Nevertheless, these findings suggest that the number of theoretically preventable deaths, while not the 50 percent often cited, is still high. Nationwide, a 24 percent decrease in fatalities would mean that over 10,000 of the nearly 45,000 people killed annually in traffic accidents in recent years would not have died. Similarly, the number of theoretically preventable disabling injuries (the most ambiguous category) is between 150,000 and 300,000 per year, Reed estimates, and the property damage that could be prevented is over $1 billion. These figures indicate what might be possible. The question then becomes, how can the United States move toward these goals?

• Do More Arrests Have an Effect?

The law in the United States (and throughout the world) clearly declares that people should not drive while drunk. Generally, legal codes specify a blood alcohol content (BAC) of between 0.08 and 0.10 percent, past which a person is legally intoxicated. Almost everyone agrees that drunk driving is reckless, therefore dangerous, and therefore wrong. Here, then, is a case where the law reinforces widely held public opinions.

The effectiveness of these laws, however, must be open to question. For every arrest made for driving while intoxicated (DWI), an estimated 500 to 2,000 drunk driving incidents go unpenalized, although more arrests are made for drunk driving in America than for any other offense and significant sums are spent on enforcement. Even doubling or quadrupling the number of arrests would leave the chance of arrest extremely small. With the possibility of getting caught so slim, it may seem that people would shrug off an effort by police to make more arrests.

Surprisingly, several studies show that this is not the case. An increased risk of arrest can significantly reduce drunk driving. The classic example is the British Road Safety Act of 1967. This act defined driving with a blood alcohol content of 0.08 to be an offense. The BAC was to be determined by an "Alcotest" breathalyzer device, one million of which were purchased by the British government. Police asked drivers to submit to the test given a reasonable cause, such as a road accident, a moving violation, or erratic driving. If the driver refused, illegal intoxication was assumed. Judges had no discretion in sentencing. The first offense resulted in a mandatory one-year suspension of a driver's license.

The Road Safety Act had a dramatic impact on Britain's drivers. In the three months after it took effect, traffic fatalities dropped 23 percent in Britain. In the first year of the act, the percentage of drivers killed who were legally drunk dropped from 27 percent to 17 percent.

These general trends mask several specific changes in British drinking practices. Research showed that the act did not significantly change the amount people in Britain drank. Rather, the act seems to have affected a very narrow slice of behavior—the custom of driving to and from pubs, especially on weekend nights. After the act took effect, many regular customers took to walking to pubs. Pub owners raised a considerable outcry, and a number of less conveniently located pubs closed.

Unfortunately, the successes of the act were relatively short-lived. Within a few years, traffic fatalities again began to climb. By 1973 the percentage of drivers killed who were drunk was back to its pre-1967 level. By 1975, for reasons still unknown, this percentage had risen to 36 percent, considerably above what it was before the act.

This evaporation of progress is a common feature of efforts to increase the risk of arrest. The usual explanation for it is that drivers eventually realize that the chances of arrest and punishment are not all that high. "People lose interest," says Charles Crawford, vice-president of the Ernest and Julio Gallo Winery. "The police lose interest, the judges have no more room to throw people in jail, and they start to forget about it." In the case of the British Road Safety Act, much of its initial effectiveness seems to have come from the breathalyzer, which had never been used in Britain before. The British expected the Alcotest to revolutionize the workings of the court on drunk driving cases. A scientific mechanism would replace the old system of patrols and trials. In fact, the breathalyzer had no such effect. Well-publicized cases soon established narrow limits to its authority. Standards for its use took several years to develop, and British police used it less frequently than did police in other countries. As the respect for and fear of the Alcotest declined, so did the effectiveness of the act.

Several drunk driving programs in the United States have produced results similar to those of the British Road Safety Act. In the 1970s the Department of Transportation funded 35 locally organized and managed Alcohol Safety Action Projects in various parts of the country. Each project sought in its own way to combine an increased risk of arrest, more effective trial and rehabilitation procedures, and public education to reduce the number of accidents caused by drunk driving. By increasing surveillance, targeting patrols for specific times and places, and motivating police to make arrests, many of the jurisdictions involved were able to double and triple the number of DWI arrests.

The studies that attempted to evaluate these local projects suffered from serious methodological flaws, including noncomparable sites, inadequate controls, and a premature expansion of the program. But in their final report, the projects' national evaluators found that 12 of the 35 had produced a discernible effect on nighttime auto fatalities—a good indicator of drunk driving. These 12 projects reduced fatalities an average of 30 percent over three years, which is broadly comparable to the 23 percent reduction in fatalities noted in the British program. Independent researchers, however, have concluded that the positive effects were much smaller.

The overall conclusion that can be drawn from the various drunk driving studies is that an increased risk of arrest does deter drunk driving. The National Research Council panel on alcohol abuse concludes that "some moderately persuasive evidence exists suggesting that effectively enforced drunken driving laws will deter drunken driving and reduce accidents and fatalities associated with it." Increased police surveillance is especially important at night, when most alcohol-induced traffic fatalities occur. Moreover, recent studies have shown that the speed with which drunk driving cases are decided in court can substantially influence the effectiveness of new drunk driving laws. However, other research questions remain to be answered to determine how best to reinforce the ongoing shift of attitudes toward drunk driving.

Roadblocks are a particularly controversial method used by police forces to increase their surveillance of drivers and to deter drunk driving.

Finally, increasing the risk of arrest is apt to be costly. For example, the Alcohol Safety Action Projects cost $88 million, not counting the costs of state and local enforcement, the expense of treatment programs borne by those arrested, and the social costs of increased police surveillance. At the most these projects saved 563 lives, for an average minimum cost of $156,000 per life saved. Many other traffic safety improvements have the potential to save lives more cost-effectively, according to the Department of Transportation, though they may not be able to save as many lives as increased enforcement of drunk driving laws.

• Do Tougher Penalties Have an Effect?

There may be another way besides increased enforcement to keep people from driving while drunk. If the penalties imposed by courts and juries for drunk driving are severe, people may think twice about taking to the road when intoxicated. This alternative has the potential to be less costly than increased police surveillance, except for the drunk drivers caught, and would also concentrate the burden of stricter laws on drunk drivers rather than on all drivers.

The prime example of harsh penalties for drunk driving is found in the Scandinavian countries. There a first DWI offense commonly results in imprisonment, fines of up to 10 percent of a person's after-tax income, or license suspensions exceeding one year. Anecdotal evidence indicates that these tough penalties are effective deterrents, but social science research has been unable to uncover any hard proof.

Research has also shown that efforts to impose tougher penalties in America have not had much effect. In part, this seems to be caused by people's belief that "it can't happen to me." "After all," Reed observes, "those who currently drive drunk are not deterred by the small risk of a very severe penalty—accidental death."

Even when a drunk driver is brought to trial, judges, juries, and even police and prosecutors are often reluctant to impose tough penalties on DWI offenders. "Many people in our society do not view driving after drinking as deviant behavior," observes Reed. "If the general feeling of the public is, 'There but for the grace of God go I,' it is doubtful that severe penalties will be applied often even if they are authorized by law." However, the recent tendency of state legislatures to toughen drunk driving laws may indicate that these attitudes are changing.

The reluctance to impose harsh penalties may also stem from confusion over the nature of the offense. Mass media ads may have caused part of the problem. Some ads have suggested that any level of drinking is dangerous when combined with driving. If this were true, 75 percent of the population would have broken the law, since this is the proportion of people who in one national survey admit to having driven after drinking. If people feel they have broken the law themselves, they are inclined to judge others leniently.

In fact, the offense is drunken driving. Many people who drink and drive are not legally intoxicated, though their driving may be impaired. If these people knew how much a person had to drink to be convicted, they might be more willing to convict others of the crime. To be considered intoxicated in most states, a person who has not recently eaten typically has to have four to five drinks within an hour (although this amount varies greatly for different people). A typical BAC for a DWI offender who is brought to trial is 0.15 percent, which would require a small person to consume six to seven drinks in an hour on an empty stomach. Most Americans have probably never driven with this much alcohol in their blood.

Finally, tougher penalties for drunk driving bring their own costs, in addition to the costs imposed on the people who are caught. The length of trials and number of appeals are both likely to rise, further burdening an overtaxed court system. If drunk drivers are to be given jail terms, the expense of their imprisonment also has to be taken into account.

Despite such drawbacks, it is clear that police surveillance and appropriate penalties must be a component of society's effort to deal with drunk driving, and the use of these legal sanctions has been increasing in recent years. As the panel concludes, "At a minimum, [drunk driving laws] help sustain a widely shared disapprobation of drunken driving. They also provide an opportunity to attack a given drinking practice more aggressively if the society is willing to commit the resources, publicity, and attention necessary to make deterrence a social phenomenon rather than an abstract concept."

As noted at the beginning of this chapter, however, legal sanctions are not the sole answer to the problem of drunk driving. Many other preventive measures can also keep people from driving when drunk. The remaining chapters in this book describe these measures in detail and present the evidence for their effectiveness. The rest of this chapter outlines the main features of these measures, noting in particular their relevance to drunk driving.

• Price and Availability of Alcohol

As described in Chapter 4 , research has shown that higher prices for alcohol can significantly reduce the amount that people drink. Price-induced decreases in consumption have in turn been linked to declines in the incidence of drunk driving and cirrhosis of the liver. For the past three decades, the price of alcohol has been falling with respect to the price of other goods. A substantial part of this decline is due to federal and state taxes on alcohol not having kept up with inflation. Thus, the government may be able to reduce drunk driving by raising its taxes on alcohol.

It is difficult to quantify exactly how much less drunk driving would occur if taxes on alcohol were to rise. There are also economic and social costs associated with raising alcohol taxes. Nevertheless, this is a good example of how changes in general drinking practices can influence drunk driving.

It may also be possible to reduce drunk driving through specific steps affecting the availability of alcohol. Since World War II, restrictions on alcohol sales have gradually been weakening. Alcoholic beverages have been sold in more and more places, those places have been open longer hours, and minimum drinking ages in many states have gone down (although recently they have begun to go back up). Evidence from the United States that a greater number of outlets selling alcohol causes more drinking is still inconclusive. But several studies have indicated that a lower minimum drinking age does lead to greater accident and fatality rates among young people who have been drinking ( Chapter 6 ). As the panel writes, "There is reasonable evidence that prohibition for youths does have some effect on their drinking and in particular that the choice of a minimum drinking age has a small but consistently exacerbating effect on the auto accident and fatality rates."

Another way to change the availability of alcohol is to have the people who serve alcohol, whether bartenders or private hosts, see to it that their customers or guests do not have too much to drink and then try to drive home ( Chapter 5 ). In over half the states in the nation, "dramshop" laws impose this responsibility on commercial servers by making them liable for the damage done by underage or "obviously intoxicated" patrons to whom they serve alcoholic beverages. These laws are not as effective as they might be, however, because of the vagueness of the term "obviously intoxicated" and because they offer little guidance to servers on how to avoid liability.

In recent years, interest has been building in ways to make these laws more effective. One suggestion has been to broaden these laws to recognize a server's overall level of responsibility. If servers had standards of practice to follow in their business, courts or legislators could absolve servers who followed those standards from the liability for damage caused by patrons who drive drunk despite the server's efforts.

• Educational Campaigns

Another approach to preventing drunk driving is through educational campaigns employing the mass media or local organizations such as hospitals, churches, and schools. These campaigns enjoy considerable prestige in the United States and have the potential to reach millions of people. As discussed in Chapter 7 , however, evidence for their effectiveness remains scanty. People already know that drunk driving is dangerous and agree that the police and courts should move effectively to deal with it. Moreover, it is unlikely that educational campaigns will be powerful enough to fundamentally alter a person's beliefs about drinking, which are set by the entire social environment, including peer groups and family.

But there is one kind of educational campaign that holds more promise. This approach, which has been tried less often, is to teach people ways to avoid driving when dangerously or illegally drunk. It might include personal rules of thumb for knowing how much alcohol one can drink before reaching a certain BAC level, self-administered sobriety tests, or alternatives to driving when one has had too much to drink.

Of course, such information would have to exist for it to be disseminated, and increased research is needed on such matters. But even where usable findings are available, a serious problem remains. Mass media campaigns invariably shy away from any suggestion that people might drive after drinking, whether that drinking results in drunkenness or not. To hint that people might drive after drinking even though they are not legally drunk might be seen as encouraging this behavior. For example, writes Reed, "It is known that drowsiness, one of the obvious effects of drinking, impairs driving ability, yet public information and education campaigns from government and private sources consistently omit such suggestions as taking caffeine, driving with the windows open, or playing the radio when driving after drinking (although it is frequently and accurately pointed out that coffee does not reverse the intoxicating effects of alcohol). Presumably, such suggestions are omitted because they could be perceived as encouraging drunk driving by lowering its expected costs." This problem of possibly encouraging driving after drinking will surface again in the section below on reducing environmental risk.

If an educational campaign about drunk driving were instituted, certain kinds of media could be especially effective. Charles Crawford suggests putting several pages on the effects of alcohol in driver's license handbooks, which are among the most widely read booklets in America. "If every driver's handbook had a few pages, not on punitive laws but on what causes drunk driving and what constitutes social responsibility, I think it would mean a lot," he says.

• Changing the Environment

Laws, server intervention, and mass media campaigns are designed to reduce the amount of drunk driving and hence the number of accidents caused by it. But it may also be possible to reduce the risk associated with drunk driving, regardless of how often people do it.

As discussed in Chapter 8 , the most efficient physical devices now available to make driving safer are passive restraints, including automatic seat belts and air bags. These devices would be more effective for drunk drivers than for sober drivers, because studies show that drunk drivers involved in accidents are less likely to use conventional seat belts than are all drivers involved in accidents. Similarly, changes in road designs to make roads less confusing or distracting would help drunk drivers even more than sober drivers, since the ability to divide attention among tasks is one of the first capacities to diminish when people drink.

Another possibility is to equip cars with devices that detect an intoxicated driver and keep the car from starting or make it very conspicuous, say, by flashing its lights or honking the horn. Several such devices have been suggested. One is an analyzer that would sniff the air around a driver's head for any trace of alcohol. Another would detect errors characteristic of drinking, such as oversteering. There are also various kinds of skills testers, such as one that requires drivers to punch random numbers into a keyboard.

Of course, drivers could disconnect any such device or have someone else take the test for them. Even so, these devices could have the important effect. They could remind a driver and anyone else whose aid was enlisted that he or she was about to do a dangerous thing. The general public would probably object to the inconvenience, annoyance, and cost of having such devices in all cars. But they could be installed in the cars of select groups, such as people who have been arrested for drunk driving before.

• Conclusions

To deal effectively with drunk driving, society must approach the problem from many different directions simultaneously. Beefed-up surveillance and tougher penalties for drunk drivers are two approaches that must be part of the solution. Drunk drivers kill and injure enough innocent third parties to warrant legal intervention, and Americans generally agree that drunk drivers should be arrested and punished.

At the same time, there are many other preventive options that should not be overlooked in an effort to get tough with drunk drivers. Higher taxes on alcohol, changes in the drinking age, responsible oversight by servers, educational campaigns, safer cars and highways, and steps to deal with repeat offenders all have at least a theoretical capability to reduce drunk driving. As we will see in the remaining chapters of this book, there are advantages and disadvantages to each of these steps, and the evidence for their effectiveness is not always conclusive. But as part of a broad, comprehensive program of prevention, they have the potential to make a significant and lasting difference.

• Cite this Page Olson S, Gerstein DR. Alcohol in America: Taking Action to Prevent Abuse. Washington (DC): National Academies Press (US); 1985. 3, Preventing Drunk Driving.
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DRUNK DRIVING RESEARCH PAPER

Every thirty minutes a person dies from an accident caused by a person who is intoxicated behind the wheel of a motor vehicle(NHTSA 2005). Driving under the influence, DUI, is a class A Misdemeanor in Tennessee and has resulted in thousands of deaths in recent years. DUI varies depending on the state or country where a person drives but generally it is the crime of operating a motorized vehicle while a person is impaired by alcohol, drugs, or any substance legal or illegal. This problem of intoxicated driving is both common and misunderstood. Many people driving everyday do not know that the driver of the next to them at the red could be impaired. In order to reduce the number of people who drive impaired in America, the act of DUI driving must be viewed as a crime, penalties for DUI driving must be altered and increased, and American's must look at drugs and alcohol as dangerous substances when used before driving a motor vehicle. DUI driving is completely preventable and with time organizations like Mothers Against Drunk Driving, MADD, have assisted the public in understanding how truly detrimental DUI driving is for all people. What is DUI, for the person who resides, lives, and drives in Tennessee? Driving under the influence is a class A misdemeanor for all DUI convictions with three or fewer previous convictions for DUI. This means for the first three DUI arrests and convictions someone receives in Tennessee it is a Misdemeanor not Felony. The minimum sentencing in Tennessee for a DUI first, second, or third conviction is two, forty­five, or one hundred twenty days in jail, respectively. Once a person is arrested for DUI in Tennessee, he or she is obligated to submit to a blood test to determine the alcoholic and/or drug content of their blood. If one refuses this test, the refusal will result in a license suspension of one to five years, depending on driving history and DUI arrest scenarios, the refusal can be used against the arrestee in court as evidence to their guilt, and the officer may apply for a search warrant to draw the arrestee's blood without his or her consent. Many police and sheriff departments have a policy requiring the police officer or deputy to apply for a search warrant for any and all refusals regardless of prior conviction or circumstances. For someone having a couple drinks and driving two blocks home, this seems a little extreme. How many people have been killed from DUI driving in America? Roughly five thousand American soldiers have died in Afghanistan and Iraq since the 2003 conflict in the middle east started. In 2005, sixteen thousand eight hundred eighty­five people died from an alcohol related crash, alcohol related meaning the driver of a vehicle had alcohol in their system; that is thirty­nine percent of all motor vehicle accident fatalities (NELSON 2015?). In 2004, 1.4 million drivers were arrested for DUI; that is an arrest rate of one out of every one hundred thirty­nine licensed drivers in America(NHTSA NCSA). DUI driving is a common and deadly aspect of driving anywhere. This problem of DUI not only costs lives but avoidable. All DUI's can be prevented and many people choose to drive a small distance even when they know they are impaired and cannot drive safely. The United States has taken several steps to eliminate DUI driving; some of the efforts lawmakers have done to stop DUI driving is raising the drinking age by cutting federal funding for states who do not have a minimum drinking age of twenty­one and enacted statutory blood alcohol levels for states regardless of perceived impairment. The Supreme Court even noted how regular DUI driving occurs in the United States and stated law enforcement has a substantial governmental interest in deterring DUI driving; the same substantial interest is also found at interest patrol checkpoints and airport security, in deterring DUI driving. The DUI driving problem is not going anywhere anytime soon.

Related Papers

Satish Kedia

Journal of Substance Use

Traffic Injury Prevention

Robert Voas

Alcohol research & health: the journal of the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism

Impaired driving remains a significant public health problem in the United States. Although impressive reductions in alcohol-related fatalities occurred between 1982 and 1997, during which all 50 States enacted the basic impaired-driving laws, progress has stagnated over the last decade. Substantial changes in the laws and policies or funding for the enforcement of the criminal offense of driving while intoxicated (DWI) are needed for further substantial progress in reducing alcohol-related crash injuries. However, research indicates that evidence-based laws in the 50 States and current best practices in DWI enforcement are not being fully adopted or used. It seems, however, that effective operations, such as the low-staff check points that are routinely applied in many communities, could be extended to many more police departments. In addition, several enforcement methods have been proposed but never fully tested.

… .[vp]. 26-30 …

Driving under the influence of alcohol: Frequency, reasons, perceived risk and punishment

Francisco Alonso , Juan C. Pastor , Luis Montoro

Background: The aim of this study was to gain information useful to improve traffic safety, concerning the following aspects for DUI (Driving Under the Influence): frequency, reasons, perceived risk, drivers' knowledge of the related penalties, perceived likelihood of being punished, drivers' perception of the harshness of punitive measures and drivers' perception of the probability of behavioral change after punishment for DUI. Methods: A sample of 1100 Spanish drivers, 678 men and 422 women aged from 14 to 65 years old, took part in a telephone survey using a questionnaire to gather sociodemographic and psychosocial information about drivers, as well as information on enforcement, clustered in five related categories: " Knowledge and perception of traffic norms " ; " Opinions on sanctions " ; " Opinions on policing " ; " Opinions on laws " (in general and on traffic); and " Assessment of the effectiveness of various punitive measures ". Results: Results showed around 60% of respondents believe that driving under the influence of alcohol is maximum risk behavior. Nevertheless, 90.2% of the sample said they never or almost never drove under the influence of alcohol. In this case, the main reasons were to avoid accidents (28.3%) as opposed to avoiding sanctions (10.4%). On the contrary, the remaining 9.7% acknowledged they had driven after consuming alcohol. It is noted that the main reasons for doing so were " not having another way to return home " (24.5%) and alcohol consumption being associated with meals (17.3%). Another important finding is that the risk perception of traffic accident as a result of DUI is influenced by variables such as sex and age. With regard to the type of sanctions, 90% think that DUI is punishable by a fine, 96.4% that it may result in temporary or permanent suspension of driving license, and 70% that it can be punished with imprisonment. Conclusions: Knowing how alcohol consumption impairs safe driving and skills, being aware of the associated risks, knowing the traffic regulations concerning DUI, and penalizing it strongly are not enough. Additional efforts are needed to better manage a problem with such important social and practical consequences.

Evaluation Review

Pedro Ceres García Torres

This article describes the methodology used in the 2007 U.S. National Roadside Survey to estimate the prevalence of alcohol- and drug-impaired driving and alcohol- and drug-involved driving. This study involved randomly stopping drivers at 300 locations across the 48 continental U.S. states at sites selected through a stratified random sampling procedure. Data were collected during a 2-hr Friday daytime session at 60 locations and during 2-hr nighttime weekend periods at 240 locations. Both self-report and biological measures were taken. Biological measures included breath alcohol measurements from 9,413 respondents, oral fluid samples from 7,719 respondents, and blood samples from 3,276 respondents.

Accident Analysis & Prevention

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