Past behaviours and future intentions: An examination of perceptual deterrence and alcohol consumption upon a range of drink driving events

Publication date: March 2020Source: Accident Analysis & Prevention, Volume 137Author(s): James Freeman, Alexander Parkes, Naomi Lewis, Jeremy D. Davey, Kerry A. Armstrong, Verity TrueloveAbstractIntroductionThe threat of application of legal sanctions remains the prominent approach to reduce the prevalence of drink driving in a vast array of motoring jurisdictions. However, ongoing questions remain regarding: (a) the extent that such mechanisms impact upon offending behaviours, (b) the deleterious effect alcohol consumption has on decisions to drink and drive and (c) how best to operationalise (and measure) the concept of drink driving to enhance the accurate measurement of the dependent variable.MethodThis paper reports on an examination of 773 Queensland motorists' (across nine local government areas) perceptions of both legal and non-legal drink driving sanctions (as well as alcohol consumption) in order to gauge the deterrent impact upon a range of measures of drink driving: the driver thinking they are over the limit, the driver knowing they are over the limit, attempts to evade random breath testing, and intentions to re-offend. The sample completed an online or paper version of the questionnaire.ResultsThe majority of participants reported “never” engaging in “possible” (74.5 %) or “acknowledged” (83.4 %) drink driving events, although a considerable proportion of the sample reported engaging in “possible” (25.5 %) or “acknowledged” (16.6 %) drink d...
Source: Accident Analysis and Prevention - Category: Accident Prevention Source Type: research