Drunk driving prevention and public health impacts

Drunk Driving Trends and Effects

Drunk driving and driving under the influence in general is a major problem in the United States. The problem is a common cause of traffic accidents and traffic fatalities and demonstrates a pervasive legal and social issue that has yet to be adequately solved and may even be increasing in occurrence as the population spreads into larger and larger areas. (Flahardy 4) According to Flahardy statistics show that first time arrestees on DUI charges have driven their cars while intoxicated on average 80 times before being detained and arrested on their first DUI charge. As the distance between destinations grows ever wider incidents of impaired driving seems to be increasing as the convenience of alternatives to driving yourself home become more mentally prohibitive, i.e. distance, cost, convenience, and time. (Flahardy 4)

DUI seems to affect in incidence a greater number of young people and be a problem that is associated with age, inexperience, and possibly the psychical incidence of risk taking among younger peoples. "For young people aged 4-34, motor vehicle accidents are the number one killer (Subramanian, 2006, NHTSA, NCSA). Data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) from the NHTSA's National Center for Statistics and Analysis (NCSA) for 2004 show that more than a third of the operators between 20 and 29 involved in fatal accidents had alcohol in their systems." (Kramer A71)The statistics associated with driving under the influence are alarming "Every year drunk driving causes more than 17,000 fatalities and 500,000 injuries. Alcohol-related fatalities in the past 25 years, according to the Web site AlcoholAlert.com, total well over half a million." ("Wheels of Misfortune…" 4) Though DUI and the deaths and disruptions it causes are not solely a young problem as people of all ages are affected by DUI, and the patterns associated with DUI, i.e. The number of times one will drive while intoxicated increases over time, the patterns for taking the risk when one should utilize alternatives can be developed at young ages.

Many consider DUI to be one of the most important problems in need of solution in the United States as the acts of just one to many resulting in death and major injury create random risk for nearly everyone on the road. The challenges are many when it comes to developing legislation and laws that address DUI, especially considering that there seems to be a disconnect between evidence-based practices that are known to work and a very legalistic individual responsibility perspective on the issue. The national trend has been to impose stricter sentencing for DUI ("Wheels of Misfortune…" 4), yet there is an indication that the kinds of things that work best are those that teach deterrence through education and awareness and offer viable alternatives to drinking while impaired i.e., improved public transportation, better teaching on the definition of a designated driver, more awareness of moderation and how it is achieved. (Kramer A71) According to Kramer, even though it is clear that these types of prevention interventions decrease the number of DUI events (with and without arrests) they are seen by the public as encouraging poor behavior rather than determining it with tougher laws and sentencing, even though the deterrence argument is not necessarily supported with evidence. (4)

Glascoff, Wallen & Shrader stress that even though college students report the utilization of a designated driver about fifty percent of the time when they must travel after consuming drugs or alcohol, many times that designated driver has also consumed drugs or alcohol as well. (14) This lack of understanding and compliance with reduced risk taking behaviors is pervasive among young people who consume intoxicants and is a seed to a longstanding problem with risk taking behavior, which does not often wane until people are much older and may even get worse as people leave education and therefore larger pools of support. This behavior may then actually accelerate as individuals begin to perceive themselves as more responsible, even if they are still engaging in the same or similar behaviors.

The statistics of alcohol related fatalities are actually improving, as more and more awareness and alternative strategies become a part of the culture and as minimum purchasing ages and other factors begin to influence the DUI situation in the U.S. "The per capita death rate of fatally injured 16-20-year-old passenger vehicle drivers with a positive BAC declined by 54% between 1982 and 1995 and by 31% between 1995 and 2008 (Longthorne, Subramanian, & Chen, 2010). (Glascoff, Wallen & Shrader 14) Clearly improvements have been made and legal and social changes over the past decades have altered the climate of driving while intoxicated. Yet, most would contend that despite declines there are still far too many accidents and far too many live lost as a result of DUI. "Despite the fact that the death rate has decreased in the last two decades, almost 30 people in the United States die each day from motor vehicle crashes that involve an alcohol impaired driver (U.S. DOT, NHTSA, 2009)." (Glascoff, Wallen & Shrader 14)