NCJ Number
75202
Date Published
1978
Length
87 pages
Annotation
This report describes the California Highway Patrol's Driving Under the Influence (DUI) Project, which used extra road patrols and a public information campaign between December 1, 1977 and January 2, 1978 to reduce accidents caused by drunken drivers.
Abstract
The Highway Patrol selected 23 areas which exhibited high accident rates for its DUI Project, which was funded by the Office of Traffic Safety. The program's goal was to reduce accidents caused by DUI to 3 percent less than the numbers projected for these areas from data on the first 9 months of 1977 and 5 year trends. The publicity campaign used all media, ranging from billboards to television. Public affairs officers scheduled appearances before as many public groups as possible during December. Speciality items, such as matchbooks and napkins, were developed. At the same time, overtime hours were alotted to each area to increase enforcement activities. DUI accidents in the project areas were reduced to 707 compared to the projected 848. While DUI holiday accidents increased 10 percent statewide, they declined in the project areas. The total cost of the Project, included publicity and overtime, was approximately $481,000. Based on National Highway Safety Traffic estimates, the 141 DUI accidents that were prevented would have cost the taxpayers over $2 million. Detailed statistics are provided for publicity costs, patrol overtime, DUI arrests, and DUI accidents. A comparison of the DUI Project with past federally funded overtime enforcement projects indicates that it was one of the most successful. Tables, graphs, and a map are provided. The appendixes contain accident trend graphs for project and nonproject areas, samples of publicity materials, the Project proposal, cost data, questionnaires completed by public affairs officers and results, statistical tables, and the Project agreement submitted to the Office of Traffic Safety.