National Survey of Drinking and Driving Attitudes and Behaviors: 2008 Volume I Summary Report This publication is distributed by the U.S. Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in the interest of information exchange. The opinions, findings, and conclusions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the Department of Transportation or the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The United States Government assumes no liability for its contents or use thereof. If trade or manufacturers’ names are mentioned, it is only because they are considered essential to the object of the publication and should not be construed as an endorsement. The United States Government does not endorse products or manufacturers. Technical Report Documentation Page 1. Report No. 2. Government Accession No. 3. Recipient’s Catalog No. DOT HS 811 342 4. Title and Subtitle 5. Report Date August 2010 Volume I: Summary Report National Survey of Drinking and Driving 6. Performing Organization Code Attitudes and Behaviors: 2008 7. Author(s) 8. Performing Organization Report No. Lisa Drew*, Dawn Royal*, Benjamin Moulton, Anne Peterson, Dar Haddix 9. Performing Organization Name and Address 10. Work Unit No. (TRAIS) Insight Policy Research 1901 North Moore Street; Suite 601 Arlington, VA 22209 11. Contract or Grant No. * Gallup, Inc. 901 F Street, NW, Washington DC 20004 DTNH22-09-C-00120 12. Sponsoring Agency Name and Address 13. Type of Report and Period Covered Summary Report U.S. Department of Transportation Final Report; April 2009-April 2010 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) 14. Sponsoring Agency Code 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE Washington, D.C. 20590 15. Supplementary Notes Alan Block was the NHTSA COTR 16. Abstract This report presents results from the eighth in a series of national telephone surveys conducted for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to assess current status and trends regarding the public’s attitudes, knowledge, and self-reported behavior related to drinking and driving. This Volume I: Summary Report, presents key results from the survey, including the reported frequency of drinking and driving, perceptions of drinking and driving as a problem, actions taken to prevent drinking and driving, attitudes and experience with enforcement of the drinking and driving laws, and the perceived effectiveness of different intervention strategies. Volume II: Findings Report provides an in-depth analysis of the topics presented in Volume I, in addition to other topics of interest. Volume III: Methodology Report describes the methods used to conduct the interviews and analyze the data, and includes copies of the questionnaires. Twenty percent of the public age 16 and older had in the past year driven a motor vehicle within 2 hours of drinking alcohol, a number largely unchanged from previous survey years. About two-thirds of these drinking-drivers did so in the past 30 days. Computed national estimates showed the public making 85.5 million drinking-driving trips in the past 30 days. Eight percent of the population had ridden in the past year with a driver they thought had consumed too much alcohol to drive safely, with males 21 to 24 (24%) most likely to report this. Thirty percent of drinking-drivers had driven in the past year when they thought they were over the legal limit for alcohol and driving. More than four-fifths (81%) of the public age 16 and older viewed drinking and driving by others as a major safety threat to themselves and their families. One-third (33%) had ridden with a designated driver in the past year. Forty-four percent of drivers had been a designated driver in the past year. About 1% of the population 16 and older had been arrested for a drinking and driving violation in the past 2 years; the percentage was 5% for males 21 to 24. Four in 10 persons (40%) believed the penalties for violating drinking and driving laws should be much more severe, while an additional 26% believed they should be somewhat more severe. Thirty percent had seen a sobriety checkpoint in the past year. There was a preference that sobriety checkpoints be conducted weekly (40%) or monthly (35%). When asked if there was a national minimum drinking age in the United States, 71% said “yes.” Of those who said there was a minimum legal drinking age, 86% correctly identified it as 21. Of eight intervention strategies read to respondents, alcohol interlocks ranked first in the percentage that believed them very effective in reducing or preventing drunk driving (63%), followed by providing alternate ways for people who have had too much to drink to get home, suspending the license of drunk drivers, and impounding or seizing the vehicle of drunk drivers (all at 54%). 17. Key Words 18. Distribution Statement Drinking, Driving, Attitudes, DWI, Survey, BAC, Problem This report is available from the National Technical Information Service Drinkers www.ntis.gov. 19. Security Classif. (of this report) 20. Security Classif. (of this page) 21. No. of Pages 22. Price Unclassified Unclassified 36 Form DOT F 1700.7 (8-72) Reproduction of completed page authorized i ii Contents Background ..................................................................................................................... v Section I: 2008 Survey Findings ................................................................................... 1 Drinking and Driving Behaviors ......................................................................... 1 Perceptions of Drinking and Driving as a Problem .......................................... 7 Number of Drinks Before Unsafe to Drive ......................................................... 8 Prevention and Intervention to Reduce Drinking and Driving ........................ 9 Enforcement of Drinking and Driving Laws .................................................... 12 Knowledge of the Minimum Drinking Age and Awareness of BAC Levels and the Legal BAC Limit ................................................................................... 15 Effectiveness of Strategies to Reduce or Prevent Drunk Driving ................ 17 Section II: Trends, 1993-2008 ...................................................................................... 19 Appendix A: Sample Size Tables ................................................................................ 25 iii iv Background In 2008, 11,773 persons died in motor vehicle crashes in the United States involving at least one driver with a BAC (Blood Alcohol Concentration) of .08 or higher.1 This number represents 32% of all motor vehicle crash fatalities for that year, an average of one fatality every 45 minutes where a driver was above the legal limit for alcohol. Traffic crashes cost society more than $230 billion each year.2 Despite progress since the 1980s in reducing alcohol-related fatalities, they remain unacceptably high. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), in conjunction with other Federal and State agencies and grassroots organizations, has worked aggressively toward reducing the incidence of alcohol-impaired motor vehicle crashes. Passage of laws in all 50 States and the District of Columbia establishing 21 as the minimum drinking age, as well as the October 2000 passage of a stricter standard for drinking and driving,3 indicate continuing improvement in this area. The 2008 National Survey of Drinking and Driving Attitudes and Behaviors is the eighth in a series of periodic surveys begun in 1991. The objective of these studies is to provide a status report on current attitudes, knowledge, and behaviors of the general driving-age public with respect to drinking and driving. The data are used to 1) track trends in the nature and scope of the drinking-driving problem, and 2) identify areas in need of further attention in the pursuit of reducing drinking and driving. This report summarizes survey data collected from 6,999 survey respondents in 2008, as well as a trend analysis generated from the six surveys administered between 1993 and 2008 (the 1991 results are not included because of substantial differences between the 1991 survey and its successors). The survey was administered to a randomly selected sample ages 16 and older from September 2008 to December 2008, with over-sampling of young adults ages 16 to 24. A total of 5,392 interviews were completed with respondents who were using landline phones during the interview and 1,607 were completed with respondents who were using cell phones. This report is not intended to provide in-depth analyses of any one topic, but rather to provide a general overview of current drinking and driving attitudes and behaviors, as well as to address the extent to which these attitudes and behaviors have changed since 1993. The numbers are weighted to produce national estimates. 1 NHTSA Traffic Safety Facts 2008 Data, DOT HS 811 155. 2 “The Nation’s New Strategy to Stop Impaired Driving,” July 2004, DOT HS 809 746. 3 This standard, which mandated .08 as the national blood alcohol standard, was fully implemented by 2004. v vi Section I: 2008 Survey Findings Drinking and Driving Behaviors One in five (20%) persons of driving age reported driving a motor vehicle within 2 hours of consuming alcoholic beverages in the past year. These persons are referred to as “drinking- drivers” throughout this report. Twenty-seven percent of males and 14% of females reported at least one drinking-driving trip in the past year.