Ninety-eight percent of Americans think that having a designated driver who agrees to do the driving is important when planning to go out with friends when there will be drinking, according to a new Road Safety Monitor (RSM) poll conducted by the Traffic Injury Research Foundation USA, Inc. (TIRF USA) and sponsored by Anheuser-Busch.
The public opinion poll conducted in October and November 2015 investigated Americans’ opinions and behaviors in relation to this issue and is based on a sample of 5,009 drivers, aged 21 years or older.
“Fatalities involving alcohol-impaired driving have declined to approximately 10,000 in comparison to previous years, which recorded averages of 13,000 to 14,000 according to official statistics. When using a longer lookback period, drunk-driving fatalities have actually decreased 53% since 1982”, explains Ms. Tara Casanova Powell, Director of Research at TIRF USA.
“Although this drop reveals progress in reducing the problem, data from recent years suggest that these declines may have plateaued since 2010, which means that alcohol-impaired driving requires continued attention and action if further improvements are to be realized.”
The good news is that progress has been made and that Americans clearly consider this to be a top priority compared to other road safety and societal issues. Such levels of concern suggest there is support among the public to further reduce the problem.
To illustrate, a majority of Americans (78%) are concerned about the issue of alcohol-impaired driving. However, the poll also found that 8% of respondents self-reported alcohol-impaired driving when they thought they were over the legal limit.
When asked about reasons for engaging in this type of behavior, more than half of those respondents who indicated they had driven in these circumstances answered that they thought they were capable of driving at the time. In particular, 44% of these respondents thought they were okay to drive and 12% thought that they could drive very carefully when they thought they were over the legal limit.
According to Dr. Ward Vanlaar, Vice President Research of TIRF in Canada and a co-author of the study, research has clearly demonstrated that today the majority of Americans realize driving while impaired is dangerous; however, some people simply do not understand the risks they pose to themselves and others.
“It is clear that while many people have gotten the message through education and enforcement, there are some drivers who believe they are less impaired, or better able to manage the effects of impairment, and do not realize they are unsafe to drive,” says Vanlaar. “Also, our results are consistent with other research and indicate that young male drivers are at a heightened risk for driving drunk. This speaks to the importance of tailored approaches toward groups at risk.”
One simple solution that can help is to educate the public about alternatives to driving such as using a designated driver who agrees to do the driving on a night out with family or friends, a taxi or public transportation where it is available.
The poll asked respondents about their behaviors in this regard and revealed that 70% of Americans reported that they had been a designated driver, 45% have used a designated driver and 28% have used some other form of transportation such as a taxi or bus.
Casanova Powell explains that in absolute numbers, this corresponds to an estimated 140 million drivers aged 21 years or older who have been a designated driver, 90 million who have used a designated driver, and 56 million who have used some other form of transportation.
To provide a more general picture, 51% of Americans reported either using a designated driver or alternative transportation (an estimated 103 million drivers aged 21 years or older) and 78% reported using a designated driver, being a designated driver, or using alternative transportation (an estimated 156 million drivers aged 21 years or older).
“Although designated driver programs alone will not solve the problem,” Casanova Powell says, “they can be a part of the solution, and the fact that so many drivers have already relied upon such alternatives shows that providing alternative solutions to drivers can help to encourage better decisions after a night out.”