NCJ Number
227453
Journal
Drugs: Education, Prevention and Policy Volume: 16 Issue: 2 Dated: April 2009 Pages: 140-151
Date Published
April 2009
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This study examined the effects on total driver fatalities over a 25-month period in Ontario (Canada) following the enactment in November 29, 1996, of the Administrative Driver's License Suspension (ADLS) law, which required that anyone charged with driving with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) over the legal limit of 80 mg/liter or failing to provide a breath sample would have their driver's license suspended for 90 days from the time the charge was brought.
Abstract
The study found a significant intervention effect for Ontario's ADLS law, as it was associated with an estimated 14.5-percent reduction in the number of fatally injured drivers. No corresponding effect was observed in the control Provinces of Manitoba and New Brunswick, which were not under ADLS provisions at the time of this study. The authors caution, however, that the research used a quasi-experimental design, which does not preclude alternative explanations for the results. Economic, climate, or traffic density factors, for example, could influence the differences in traffic fatalities among the Provinces in addition to or instead of the ADLS law. Data on drivers fatally injured in Ontario between January 1, 1988, and December 31, 1998 (7,005 drivers) were obtained from the Traffic Injury Research Foundation. Manitoba and New Brunswick were selected as control Provinces because they are geographically close to Ontario and they had not introduced any major drinking-driving initiatives between December 1995 and November 1997. 1 figure, 1 table, and 33 references