POLICIES TO REDUCE ALCOHOL-IMPAIRED DRIVING - EVALUATING ELEMENTS OF DETERRENCE

This study assesses state policies toward alcohol-impaired driving, a major threat to traffic safety and a cause of highway casualties. Stat e laws and policies seek to deter such behavior by improving the certa inty, severity, and celerity of punishment. A pooled cross-sectional t ime series regression analysis of the 48 contiguous states is utilized to estimate the effects of the three components of deterrence in conj unction with a set of environmental control variables. Of the deterren ce-based variables, per se laws and administrative license suspension are found to have the greatest impact on single-vehicle nighttime fata lities. In contrast, laws which attempt to increase the severity of pu nishment have virtually no effect.