Connecticut's 2003 Impaired-Driving High-Visibility Enforcement Campaign

In 2003, Connecticut initiated a publicity and enforcement campaign to reduce impaired driving and alcohol-related fatalities, particularly among men 21 to 34 years old. The State spent nearly 4 million dollars on the campaign. The campaign began during the July 4th holiday period, was sustained during the summer and fall, and peaked during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday period. Statewide telephone surveys indicated that drivers reported significantly more often after the campaign that they had heard about impaired driving in Connecticut and had been through or knew someone who had been through a sobriety checkpoint. Telephone surveys also indicated that more drivers thought State and local police were very strict about enforcing the laws against drinking and driving and that a driver who had been drinking was very likely to be stopped by police. Patterns were similar for men 21 to 34 years old. Roadside surveys of driver blood alcohol concentrations (BAC) indicated a significant decrease in the proportion of drivers with a positive BAC at the end of the campaign compared to the previous year. In addition, Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average analyses of the alcohol-related fatality trend for the State and for men 21 to 34 indicated that both rates decreased significantly, by an estimated 2.6 and 1.6 fewer fatalities each month. The total lives saved amounted to 47 statewide and 29 for men 21 to 34 in the year and a half following the campaign's start.

• Record URL:
  http://www.nhtsa.dot.gov/people/injury/alcohol/StopImpaired/3025ConnImpDriving/pages/Contents.html
• 
• Record URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/1764
• Corporate Authors:

  Preusser Research Group, Incorporated

  7100 Main Street
  Trumbull, CT  United States  06611

  Connecticut Governor's Highway Safety

  2800 Berlin Turnpike
  Newington, CT  United States  06131

  National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Zwicker, T J
  • Chaudhary, N K
  • Maloney, S
  • Squeglia, R
• Publication Date: 2007-2

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Edition: Final Report
• Features: Appendices; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 64p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Blood alcohol levels; Countermeasures; Crash causes; Drunk drivers; Drunk driving; Fall; Fatalities; Highway safety; Holidays; Human factors in crashes; Impaired drivers; Males; Publicity; Sobriety checkpoints; Summer; Surveys; Traffic crashes; Traffic law enforcement; Traffic safety; Young adults
• Geographic Terms: Connecticut
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01047338
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: HS-810 689
• Contract Numbers: DTNH22-98-D-45079
• Files: HSL, NTL, TRIS, USDOT
• Created Date: Apr 26 2007 3:59PM