Do those messages we see on TV about not drinking and driving really work, or are many drivers still saying to themselves "I can have a few drinks and I'll be okay."

Tell us what you think.

Its very much like the speeding issue-- many drivers say that they speed (over the speed limit) every day and they have not had a crash- so they do not believe that speeding causes crashes-

many drivers drive after a couple of drinks and never have a crash-

drink drivers involved in crashes are often repeat offenders with high levels of alcohol blood levels-- not the drivers with much smaller levels of alcohol--how to target these groups is the real issue

To address drink driving ads are only one component they must be supported by other stratiges including enforcement and education, Drink drivers don't think they will die in a crash, but with random breath testing they make be think about being detected. The way to deal with repeat offenders is to install an alcohol ignition lock at the offenders cost,and set it at .00

Dave has it in a nutshell: best results in any area of road safety come from a battery of measures: education and publicity (about penalties as well as facts about alcohol and road use), backed up with visible enforcement and effective penalties to deter driving after drinking. Where it is relevant, engineering measures should be used also.

Repeat offenders are often people with an alcohol problem, rather than a drink driving problem, and additional measures may be needed: treatment and rehabilitation.

You may be interested in the following: the Australian College of Road Safety, a non-profit organisation for interested people and professionals working in road safety, has a policy statement on the issue (find us on the web at www.acrs.org.au).

ALCOHOL

ACRS Policy Position
Drink driving has always been a major contributor to road trauma in Australia. There has been great improvement over the last three decades, but further reductions in alcohol associated road trauma are possible. To this end ACRS supports
· present national permissible blood alcohol limits of 0.05 BAC for most drivers and 0 for novice drivers (0.02 in WA), drivers of heavy vehicles, dangerous goods vehicles, emergency vehicles, public service vehicles, and driving instructors and supervisors of learner drivers
· continued enforcement, education and publicity on the risks and dangers of drinking and driving
· efforts to reinforce the social desirability of separating alcohol and road use
· maintaining a high level of high profile random breath testing, to at least one test for each licensed driver each year
· regular review of penalties for drink driving so that a range of measures including monetary, driver’s licence, denial of vehicle use and custodial penalties remain a real deterrent against drinking and driving
· continuing development of measures to deal with ‘problem’ alcohol users and recidivist drink drivers, including social measures such as rehabilitation
· greater availability of safe and reasonably convenient public transport alternatives.
In the longer term, ACRS sees merit in investigating whether there is a case for further reduction in permissible blood alcohol concentration to Zero BAC for all motor vehicle operators.
ACRS presses for the development and universal fitting of passive breath test devices or driver impairment sensors that detect the presence of alcohol or impaired performance, and provide warnings or prevent the vehicle being driven.

Objective
Objectives of this position are to:
· continue to reduce the influence of alcohol on road trauma
· reinforce the social desirability of separating alcohol and road use.

Discussion
Drink driving has been one of the largest single contributors to road trauma. In 1980 when 3272 persons were killed in road crashes, 44% of drivers and motorcycle riders killed had more than the legal concentration of alcohol. In 1995 when 2017 persons were killed that proportion was 30%. The most recent national figure, for 1997, is 28%.
The improvement has come about through a combination of reducing the permissible blood alcohol limit to 0.05 g/100ml of blood (0.05%), introducing and maintaining a high level of random breath testing, and heavy penalties reinforced with publicity and information measures (eg the distribution of millions of ‘standard drink’ cards, media advertising, etc) aimed at making drink driving socially unacceptable.
However any single problem that still accounts for more than one quarter of driver road deaths should be capable of improvement, and a major target for countermeasures. Further improvement can be gained by increasing the level of random breath testing to at least one test per licensed driver per year (a component of the National Road Safety Strategy 2000-2010 announced by Australian Transport Council in November 2000), strategically targeted to achieve the greatest effect.
Alcohol ignition interlocks have been proposed, usually as a way to allow convicted drink drivers to continue to drive where court rulings allow. Technology is now being developed to fit ‘passive’ devices that can sense the presence of alcohol and prevent the vehicle from being started until a test is passed. Such devices would not inconvenience a sober driver. Any such device should be reliable, accurate and difficult to bypass, and fitted to all vehicles in manufacture.
The College also notes that devices have been developed for the road transport industry to assess impairment from fatigue, and that there is potential for systems to automatically assess variation from a driver’s own baseline driving performance characteristics, and issue progressively more intrusive warnings and eventually shut down vehicle systems if the driver does not respond. ACRS should press for the further development and eventual equipment of all vehicles with such devices.
There remain some problem areas such as recidivist drink drivers. Recidivist drink driving is the effect of a problem, not the problem itself. As well as enforcement measures to deter offending and alcohol interlocks, recidivist drink drivers need other treatment and support measures such as rehabilitation programs. As well, there may be a case for applying penalties administratively instead of going through the courts, for repeat offenders. Measures such as impoundment of the vehicles of repeat offenders should be investigated, trialled and implemented if found to be effective.
In the longer term, society should consider moving to more stringent permissible blood alcohol limits (ie 0 BAC) for all motor vehicle drivers.

Reference
Australian Transport Council, The National Road Safety Strategy 2001-2010, ATSB Canberra 2001

Interesting reading. I work in the area of road safety in the Bay of Plenty, NZ. our problem is a predominantly rural one where drivers have a lack of options in terms of transport. The "dont drink and drive message" has captured a large part of the population and overall we are experiencing a decline in alcohol related crashes. However, a lingering part of the poluation, predominantly male and over 40, still drink and drive. We have rehabilitation porgrams in place for these offenders but have difficulty in measuring its effectiveness and would like to share information about any programs run in other countries that have had successes. We are able to coordinate a mulit agency response i.e. enforcement and education but lack the local skills to assess effectiveness and quality of recidivist drink driver rehabilitation programs. As this is very early in the project i would like to observe and or research examples of programs, to compare when designs our response to this problem. Any help or suggestions would be appreciated.

I am looking at the site suggested earlier.

Thanks

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It isn't difficult to accept that a core of hard cases would resist any attempt to change their drinking/driving behavior. Maybe it's social or psychological circumstances that pin them in their set of behaviors.

However, it doesn't help that much of the advertising against drinking and driving implies that fuzzy vision or deteriorated coordination are the major signs of impairment. Impairment starts way before coordination or vision go off, any anyway, the hard-core drinking/driving offender probably won't notice this.

What we really need is to focus on the less obvious signs of impairment - such as attention-dividing capability.