Alcohol-impaired driving continues to be a major public health problem in the United States. During 2000, alcohol was involved in 40% of all traffic fatalities (1). One promising countermeasure to alcohol-impaired driving is the ignition interlock license restriction program. Ignition interlock devices are designed to prevent an alcohol-impaired driver from starting and operating a motor vehicle. License restriction means that drivers are approved for license reinstatement on the condition that they agree to a license restriction prohibiting them from operating a vehicle without an ignition interlock device. The conditional interlock license restriction is prominently displayed on the driver's license of each program participant. Ignition interlock license restrictions have shown potential for reducing recidivism among drivers with multiple alcohol-related traffic offenses (2). Later analyses of this same cohort examined recidivism rates 3 and 4 years after study entry (3, 4). In the current paper, new recidivism rates for the one year interlock license restriction program and second (i.e., first year post-interlock) through fifth year (i.e., fourth year post-interlock) of follow-up are presented using newly developed electronic data abstraction methods. There was no statistically significant difference in the recidivism rates for the interlock license restriction (4.0%) and control groups (4.8%) in the fifth year after study entry. (Author/publisher) For the covering abstract of the conference see ITRD Abstract No. E201067.
Abstract