CDC conducts motor vehicle
injury research and oversees extramural research and program activities.
Priority areas include alcohol-impaired driving, older drivers, teenage
drivers, and child passenger safety.
Alcohol-Impaired Driving
An alcohol-related motor
vehicle crash kills someone every 31 minutes and injures someone every 2
minutes. Each year, an estimated 120 million episodes of
alcohol-impaired driving occur in the United States (Dellinger, Bolen,
and Sacks 1999; Liu et al. 1997). In 2003 alone,17,013 people died in
alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes, representing 40% of the year’s
total traffic deaths (NHTSA 2004).More than 1.4 million drivers were
arrested in 2002 for driving under the influence of alcohol or narcotics
(NHTSA 2004). Alcohol-related crashes in the United States cost about
$51 billion each year (Blincoe et al. 2002).
Alcohol-impaired driving
also puts children at risk. About400 child passengers age 14 years and
younger die annually in alcohol-related crashes in the United States. More than two-thirds of these children are riding with the drinking
driver (Shults 2004).
After more than a decade of
declining rates in alcohol-related fatal crashes in the United States,
rates have begun to climb. Since 1999, rates have increased by 4% to 10%
for all age groups except for those 16 to 17 years of age (Elder and
Shults2002). To further decrease alcohol-related fatal crashes,
communities need to implement and enforce strategies that are known to
be effective, such as sobriety checkpoints, 0.08% blood alcohol
concentration (BAC) laws, minimum legal drinking age laws, and “zero
tolerance” laws for young drivers (Shults et al. 2001).
Research
Alcohol-related fatality rates still
exceed Healthy People 2010 goals —
CDC scientists recently
reported that during 2002,alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes resulted
in 17,419 deaths in the United States, accounting for 41% of all traffic
fatalities. Based on data from the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration and the U.S. Census Bureau, the rate of fatalities in
alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes decreased13% from 1993 to 2002,
from 6.9 to 6.0 per 100,000 persons. However, this rate will need
to substantially decline to meet the Healthy People 2010 objective of
4.0 per 100,000 persons (CDC 2003).
Stronger state DUI prevention
activities may reduce alcohol-impaired driving —
CDC scientists found that in states that
are working more actively to prevent DUI, fewer drivers report drinking
and driving. The researchers examined the association between states’
grades on the 1999 Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) Rating the
States survey, which graded states on their DUI countermeasures from
1996 to 1999 and on 1997Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System
(BRFSS) data on residents’ self-reported drinking and driving. They
found that residents of states with a MADD grade of “D” were 60% more
likely to report alcohol-impaired driving than residents from states
with a MADD grade of “A” (Shults et al. 2002).
Actions to decrease alcohol-related
fatal crashes involving young drivers have been effective —
Over the past 20 years,
alcohol-related fatal crash rates have decreased by 60% for drivers ages
16 to 17 years and55% for drivers ages 18 to 20 years. However, this
progress has stalled in the past few years. To further decrease
alcohol-related fatal crashes among young drivers, communities need to
implement and enforce strategies that are known to be effective, such as
minimum legal drinking age laws and “zero tolerance” laws for drivers
under 21 years of age (Elder and Shults 2002).
Research identifies effective
interventions against alcohol-impaired driving —
In systematic reviews of
published research studies, a team of researchers led by CDC evaluated
the effective-ness of several interventions for reducing fatal and
nonfatal, alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes. They found strong
evidence for the effectiveness of 0.08% BAC laws, minimum legal drinking
age laws, sobriety checkpoints, and mass media campaigns that meet
certain conditions (i.e., careful audience research, adequate audience
exposure, and presence of other alcohol-impaired driving prevention
activities). They also found sufficient evidence of the effectiveness
for lower BAC laws specific to young or inexperienced drivers (“zero
tolerance” laws), and intervention training programs for alcohol
servers. Finally, they found sufficient evidence that school-based
education programs decrease riding with alcohol-impaired drivers (though
there was insufficient evidence about the programs’ effects on
alcohol-impaired driving itself). These reviews, scheduled for
publication in The Guide to Community Preventive Services in 2005, are
available online at
www.thecommunityguide.org.
Sobriety checkpoints reduce
alcohol-related crashes —
Fewer alcohol-related
crashes occur when sobriety checkpoints (traffic stops where drivers are
systematically selected for alcohol-impairment testing) are implemented,
according to a CDC report published in the December 2002issue of Traffic
Injury Prevention. The systematic review of research shows sobriety
checkpoints reduce alcohol-related crashes by about 20% (Elder et al.
2002).
