Drunk Driving Prevention

lacombes15 Prevention

  1. Plan Ahead-If you know you will be drinking, plan to either

    1. have a designated driver
    2. take public transportation or
    3. call a taxi

  2. Don’t let your friends drink and drive.

  3. Sobriety Checkpoints

    1. Police briefly stop vehicles at checkpoints
    2. Check to make sure driver isn’t impaired

  4. Ignition Interlocks

    1. Prevent car from starting if the driver has a BAC above a certain level
    2. Used for people convicted of drunk driving
    3. Prevents them from drunk driving again

Campaigns

lacombes15 Activism

  • MADD’s Campaign to Eliminate Drunk Driving

    • Support our heroes.  Support high-visibility law enforcement to catch drunk drivers and discourage others from driving drunk.
    • Sober to start.  Require ignition interlock devices, or in-car breathalyzers, for all drunk drivers, to prove they are sober before their car will start.
    • Secure the future.  Support the development of technology to determine automatically whether or not the driver is above the legal limit of .08 and failing to operate if the driver is drunk.

  • Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over

  • Faces of Drunk Driving

    • Don’t drink and drive. Ever. Had a drink or two? The smartest and safest thing is not to drive at all. Take a turn as the designated driver. A designated driver is the person who hasn’t had anything to drink at all, not the one who is the least drunk.
    • Plan ahead. The time to think about how you’ll get home after you’ve consumed alcohol is BEFORE the drinking begins.
    • Talk to your friends and family. Share this website with the people you care about. Friends don’t let friends drive drunk.

The Legal Limit

lacombes15 Statistics

The legal limit of blood alcohol concentration (BAC) is 0.08%. This limit signifies that you are no longer able to operate a motor vehicle with the amount of alcohol in your system. The following chart from MADD.org shows the effects of alcohol on the mind and body while in a vehicle at increasing BACs.

Blood Alcohol Concentration (g/dL)1

Typical Effects

Predictable Effects on Driving

.02

 • Some loss of judgment
• Relaxation
• Slight body warmth
• Altered mood		 • Decline in visual functions (rapid tracking of a moving target)
• Decline in ability to perform two tasks at the same time (divided attention)

.05

 • Exaggerated behavior
• May have loss of small-muscle control (e.g., focusing your eyes)
• Impaired judgment
• Usually good feeling
• Lowered alertness
• Release of inhibition		 • Reduced coordination
• Reduced ability to track moving objects
• Difficulty steering
• Reduced response to emergency driving situations

.08

 • Muscle coordination becomes poor (e.g., balance, speech, vision, reaction time, and hearing)
• Harder to detect danger
• Judgment, self-control, reasoning, and memory are impaired		 • Concentration
• Short-term memory loss
• Speed control
• Reduced information processing capability (e.g., signal detection, visual search)
• Impaired perception

.10

 • Clear deterioration of reaction time and control
• Slurred speech, poor coordination, and slowed thinking		 • Reduced ability to maintain lane position and brake appropriately

.15

 • Far less muscle control than normal
• Vomiting may occur (unless this level is reached slowly or a person has developed a tolerance for alcohol)
• Major loss of balance		 • Substantial impairment in vehicle control, attention to driving task, and visual and auditory information processing

Statistics

lacombes15 Statistics

The average drunk driver has driven drunk 80 times before their first arrest.

(Centers for Disease Control. “Vital Signs: Alcohol-Impaired Driving Among Adults — United States, 2010.” Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report. October 4, 2011.)

The rate of drunk driving is highest among 21 to 25 year olds (23.4 percent).

(Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. “Results from the 2010 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: Summary of National Findings.” September 2011.)

Every two minutes, a person is injured in a drunk driving crash.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. “The Economic and Societal Impact Of Motor Vehicle Crashes, 2010.” National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, May 2014, DOT HS 812 013. http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/812013.pdf.

Drunk driving costs the United States $199 billion a year.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. “The Economic and Societal Impact Of Motor Vehicle Crashes, 2010.” National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, May 2014, DOT HS 812 013. http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/812013.pdf.

On average, two in three people will be involved in a drunk driving crash in their lifetime.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. “The Economic and Societal Impact Of Motor Vehicle Crashes, 2010.” National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, May 2014, DOT HS 812 013. http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/812013.pdf.

Drunk driving costs each adult in the United States almost $800 per year.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. “The Economic and Societal Impact Of Motor Vehicle Crashes, 2010.” National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, May 2014, DOT HS 812 013. http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/812013.pdf.

In 2012, 29.1 million people admitted to driving under the influence of alcohol, which is more than the population of Texas.

Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Results from the 2012 National Survey on Drug Use and Health: Summary of National Findings, NSDUH Series H-46, HHS Publication No. (SMA) 13-4795. Rockville, MD: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2013.

Every day in America, another 28 people die as a result of drunk driving crashes.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration FARS data, 2014. http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/812102.pdf

In 2013, 10,076 people died in drunk driving crashes – one every 52 minutes – and 290,000 were injured in drunk driving crashes.

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration FARS data, 2014. http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/812102.pdf. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. “The Economic and Societal Impact Of Motor Vehicle Crashes, 2010.” National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, May 2014, DOT HS 812 013. http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/812013.pdf.

Drunk driving involvement in fatal crashes in 2011 was 4.5 times higher at night than during the day (36 versus 8 percent).

(National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. “Traffic Safety Facts 2011: Alcohol-Impaired Driving” Washington DC: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2012.)