Gallup Poll: Drinking and Driving

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Complete Survey (PDF Download)

Executive Summary

Background

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA) mission is to save lives, prevent injuries, and reduce traffic-related health care and other economic costs. The goal is to meet the U.S. Secretary of Transportation’s objective of reducing alcoholrelated fatalities to 11,000 by the year 2005. Slight changes in the survey design and methodology in 1999 limit direct comparisons in some areas to the data collected in the previous administrations.

In order to plan and evaluate programs intended to reduce alcohol-impaired driving, NHTSA needs to periodically update its knowledge and understanding of the public’s attitudes and behaviors with respect to drinking and driving. NHTSA began measuring the driving age public’s attitudes and behaviors regarding drinking and driving in 1991.

This study represents the fifth of these biennial surveys designed to track the effectiveness of current programs and to identify areas in need of attention.Telephone interviews were conducted with a nationally representative sample of 5,733 persons of driving age (age 16 or older) in the United States between October 12 and December 12, 1999. Findings from the current survey are presented first. Then, comparisons with prior surveys are made.

Slight changes in the survey design and methodology in 1999 limit the number of direct comparisons that can be made to the previous NHTSA drinking and driving administrations.

Key Findings

Drinking and Driving Behavior

About 21% of the driving age public have driven a motor vehicle within two hours of consuming alcoholic beverages in the past year. These persons are referred to as “drinker-drivers†throughout this report.

Males are more than twice as likely to have driven within two hours of drinking as are females (31% compared to 13%).

Adults age 21 to 45 are the most likely to be drinker-drivers, with 37% of males and 18% of females driving within two hours of alcohol consumption.

On average, drinker-drivers consume 2.7 drinks prior to driving. Drinker-drivers under age 21 consume an average of 6.3 drinks prior to driving.

Drinker-drivers made between an estimated 840 million and 1.1 billion driving trips within two hours of consuming alcohol in the previous year. Those age 21 to 29 make a disproportionately high number of drinking-driving trips (21% of trips while they are 16% of the driving age population).

Drinker-drivers operate a motor vehicle with an average blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .03, which is below the legal limit for those age 21 or older; however, about 5% of drinker-drivers are estimated to have a BAC of .08 or higher. While those age16-20 make only about 1% of all drinking-driving trips, they do so at a BAC level three times that of legal age drinkers. Which is about .10 BAC.

About one in ten (11%) persons age 16 or older has ridden with a driver they thought might have consumed too much alcohol to drive safely in the past year. This number rises to about two in ten among those age 21 to 29, and to one in four among those age 16 to 20 (23%). Of those who rode with unsafe persons, four in ten riders decided that their drivers were unsafe before they were riding in the vehicle, but still rode with them.

Attitudes About Drinking and Driving

The driving age public sees drinking and driving as a serious problem that needs to be dealt with. Virtually all (97%) see drinking and driving by others as a threat to their own personal safety and that of their family, and nearly three-quarter (73%) feel reducing drinking and driving is extremely important in terms of where tax dollars should be spent.

Large proportions of those age 16 and older are supportive of “zero toleranceâ€1 for drinking and driving. Nearly seven in ten (68%) agree that people should not be allowed to drive if they have had any alcohol at all. Non drinker-drivers (76%) are more supportive of this belief than are drinker-drivers (33%).1

A majority (63%) of persons of driving age believes that they, themselves, should not drive after consuming more than two alcoholic beverages. In contrast, male drinkerdrivers under age 30 feel that they can safely drive after consuming about four drinks within two hours. An average 170-pound male would still be below the legal limit2 (either .08 or .10) after four drinks.

Prevention and Intervention of Drinking and Driving

Half of drivers 16 or older who consume alcoholic beverages, report at least one occasion where they refrained from driving when they thought they may have been impaired. Most of these persons rode with another driver instead.

Virtually all (98%) of those 16 and older feel that they should prevent someone they know from driving if they are impaired. Thirty-two percent (32%) of persons of driving age have been with a friend who may have had too much to drink to drive safely. Most of these (82%) tried to stop the friend from driving. Intervention was successful about 80% of the time.

Three in ten (31%) of those 16 or older have ridden with a designated driver in the past year, with those under age 30 most likely to have done so. Four in ten drivers have acted as a designated driver in the past year. Designated drivers were reported to have consumed less than one-half of one alcoholic drink, on average, prior to driving. 1 In this report ‘zero tolerance’ refers to no driving after drinking by anyone, of any age. All states have ‘zero tolerance’ laws which refer specifically to drivers under 21. 2 As of November 2000, 19 states, D.C. and Puerto Rico have .08 per se laws. 30 states have .10 per se laws.

Enforcement

About 1% of the driving age public report being arrested for impaired driving in the past 2 years. Males under age 30 were most likely to have been arrested. This is consistent with the higher average calculated BAC levels of young drinker-drivers.

Six of ten (62%) believe that a conviction is very likely or certain if they were arrested for a drinking-driving violation, while one in seven (15%) feel that a conviction would be unlikely.

The driving age public generally feels that an impaired driver is more likely to have a crash than to be stopped by police. On average, the public feels that about 43% will get in a crash while the police will stop about 33%.

About 64% feel that current drinking and driving laws and penalties are effective at reducing drinking and driving. Yet, three of four (73%) persons age 16 or older feel that drinking driving penalties should be more severe.

One in three (34%) persons of driving age have seen a sobriety checkpoint in the past year. About 19% have been through such a checkpoint themselves. A majority (64%) feel that sobriety checkpoints should be used more frequently.

Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) Levels

Four of five (80%) persons of driving age have heard of blood alcohol concentration (BAC) levels, but fewer than three in ten (27%) can correctly identify the legal BAC limit for their state.

More than two-thirds (68%) of driving age residents who have heard of BAC levels support the use of a .08 BAC legal limit in their state. More than eight of ten (86%) of those who currently reside in .08 states believe that the limit should remain at .08 or be made stricter, while 49% of those in .10 states feel their state should lower the limit to .08. Six in ten feel that all or most drivers would be dangerous at the BAC limit in their state.

Support for .08 is strongest among those who do not drink and drive, with 70% feeling the limit should be .08 or stricter (lower). While support is not as strong among those who drink and drive, 36% of this group also support a BAC limit .08 or stricter.

Crash Experience

Nearly two in ten (17%) persons of driving age were involved in a motor vehicle crash as a driver in the past two years. Alcohol was involved in about 2% of reported crashes.

Drivers under age 21 were more likely to be involved in a crash both as a driver and a passenger than were other drivers.

Perceived Effectiveness of Strategies to Reduce Drunk Driving

The general driving age population feel that the following would be the most effective strategies to reduce impaired driving providing alternative means of transportation (to self driving) for impaired drivers (63% very effective making bars and liquor stores more legally responsible for selling to minors/drunk patrons 55%); and increasing law enforcement efforts to arrest drunk drivers (53%). Making alcohol harder to buy (by liming sales outlets), increasing the cost through increased taxes and limiting alcohol advertising are felt to be much less effective strategies.

Complete Survey (PDF Download)

Tags: Fatalities & Accidents |  Statistics