On October 1, 1989 a drunk drivers project was started in the province of Drenthe. The project aimed at reducing the number of drunk drivers by increasing the perceived rate of detection by the police. To achieve this, the number of spot checks for drunk driving was increased. This campaign was to be accompanied by a great deal of publicity. In addition, the celerity of punishment was increased and measures for the impounding of driver's licences were tightened. For the evaluation of the project a sample of 816 Drenthian drivers were interviewed by phone in the spring of 1990. One year later, in the spring of 1991, the interviews were repeated using the same sample of drivers. At both times a control group, consisting of a sample of 407 drivers from two other provinces, was interviewed with the same questionnaire. The research focused on answering the following questions: - Did the number of checks on driving under influence increase? - Did the perceived detection rate increase? - Has driving under the influence decreased? - Did attitudes towards driving under the influence change? In 1991 11 % of the Drenthian drivers had been stopped for an alcohol test in the preceding year, whereas the 1990 interview showed only 8%. Because this increase failed to turn up in the other provinces, the difference can be construed as an indication of an increase in spot checks in Drenthe. Whether the number of spot checks has actually increased cannot be ascertained from the interviews with motorists. Despite the increase in the number of motorists being checked, the perceived detection rate did not increase. On the contrary, the number of motorists in Drenthe who regarded the change of being caught driving under the influence as small or negligible increased slightly from 48% to 52%. In 1990, 29 % believed that the chance of being caught was 1 % at most. In 1991 this had increased to 37% of the motorists surveyed in Drenthe. Outside Drenthe hardly any change occurred. As to self-reported driving under the influence, neither within Drenthe nor elsewhere were any changes detected. As far as the attitude towards driving under the influence is concerned, there is evidence that the project has had a positive effect in Drenthe. The number of motorists who believed that driving after having a drink posed no problem hardly changed between 1990 and 1991, but outside Drenthe it increased rather sharply, from 12% to 16%. In summary: increasing the number of spot checks has not led to an increase in the perceived detection rate nor to a lessening of driving under the influence. However, in Drenthe the attitude towards driving under the influence has shifted somewhat in the desired direction, in the sense that the negative tendency visible elsewhere did not take place there. (Author/publisher)
Abstract