This project addressed: (1) the impact of administrative license revocation (ALR) on the employment of first and multiple drunk-driving (DUI) offenders, and (2) the impact of alcohol-related crashes on the employment of crash-involved persons (i.e., innocent drivers, passengers, and pedestrians). In-person DUI offender questionnaires were completed by 579 first offenders and 233 multiple offenders (812 total) at alcohol education schools and treatment programs in the following four counties, which represent varying levels of ALR: Chester County, PA (no ALR), Anne Arundel County, MD (immediate hardship license available), Marin County, CA (30-day hard license suspension), and New Castle County, DE (90-day hard license suspension). Completed crash victim surveys were returned by 146 crash victims from Pennsylvania, California, and Delaware. The data in this study show that administrative license revocation does not have a pronounced impact on the DUI offender's job and income. Alcohol-involved crashes have a great impact on seriously injured victims. However, the proportion of DUI crashes producing serious injury is quite low. Most DUI is crash-free, and most crashes do not involve injury. Thus, the vast bulk of the impact of DUI falls on the offenders, and not the victims. Police recommendations based on the study findings are: (1) One should not expect loss of jobs and income from administrative license revocations as great as 90 days for first offenders. Since such revocation has safety benefits, continued support for the adoption of administrative license revocation in the 12 states that do not yet have ALR is recommended. (2) The data indicate no strong reason to prefer one form or duration of ALR over another, from the viewpoint of minimizing economic consequences. (3) Because the population perceives the risk of apprehension for unlicensed driving as very low, more should be done to increase the rate of detection, and such efforts should be widely publicized. (4) States should facilitate license reinstatement so that more drivers become licensed at the end of their sanction period. (5) Since the public is still not familiar with administrative license revocation, more resources should be devoted to publicizing this remedial action in order to achieve general deterrence. (A)
Samenvatting