THE IMPACT OF SEVERE PENALTIES ON DRINKING AND DRIVING

The impact of severe mandatory penalties for drunk driving - jail, community service, and loss of license - was studied. The percentages of fatally injured drivers with blood alcohol levels exceeding .00, .07, .09, and .19% were used as indicators of drunk driving. The time period studied was 1980 through 1985. The states studied were those which tested at least 60% of the fatally injured drivers, and at least 100 annually. Seven states which introduced severe mandatory penalties druing this period were compared with seven states which had no change. It was found that, during the period 1980-1985, drunk driving declined in all 14 states. The decline was greater at the higher BAC levels than at the lower ones. For BAC greater than or equal to .20%, the decline was nearly 20%. There was no indication that the decline was greater in states that had introduced the severe sanctions than in states that had not. Though there is no indication that the severe sanctions had a beneficial effect with respect to the measures used in this study, the possibility that they might have had more subtle effects cannot be ruled out.

• Corporate Authors:

  AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety

  2990 Telestar Court, Suite 100
  Falls Church, VA  United States  22042
• Authors:
  • Joksch, H C
• Publication Date: 1988

Media Info

• Pagination: 28 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Blood alcohol levels; Driver licenses; Drunk drivers; Drunk driving; Penalties; Revocation
• Old TRIS Terms: Driver license revocation
• Subject Areas: Highways; Law; Safety and Human Factors; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00486852
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: HS-040 447
• Files: HSL, TRIS
• Created Date: Aug 31 1990 12:00AM