You are here

  • Home
  • Archive
  • Volume 19, Issue 1
  • Attitudes towards requiring ignition interlocks for all driving while intoxicated offenders: findings from the 2010 HealthStyles Survey

Article Text

Article menu
Download PDFPDF
Brief reports
Attitudes towards requiring ignition interlocks for all driving while intoxicated offenders: findings from the 2010 HealthStyles Survey
  1. Ruth A Shults,
  2. Gwen Bergen
  1. Division of Unintentional Injuries, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
  1. Correspondence to Dr Ruth A Shults, Division of Unintentional Injury Prevention, National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 4770 Buford Highway, N.E., MS F-62, Atlanta, GA, 30341 USA; rshults{at}cdc.gov

Abstract

Ignition interlocks are effective in reducing recidivism among driving while intoxicated (DWI) offenders while installed on their vehicles. However, the devices are not widely used in the USA. This survey gauged public support for requiring ignition interlocks for all convicted DWI offenders including first-time offenders. 69% of respondents supported such a policy. Support was lowest (38%) among persons who reported drinking and driving in the past 30 days. Multivariate regression analysis indicated that support varied little by region, community size or most measured individual characteristics. Persons who did not drink and drive were 80% more likely to support the requirement than those who drink and drive. These findings suggest that laws requiring ignition interlocks for all convicted DWI offenders may face the most opposition in communities with high levels of drinking and driving.

  • Alcohol abuse
  • traffic accidents
  • public opinion
  • ignition interlock
  • MVTC
  • alcohol/drugs
  • epidemiology

https://doi.org/10.1136/injuryprev-2012-040367

Statistics from Altmetric.com

    Request Permissions

    If you wish to reuse any or all of this article please use the link below which will take you to the Copyright Clearance Center’s RightsLink service. You will be able to get a quick price and instant permission to reuse the content in many different ways.

    View Full Text

    Footnotes

    • Frank Harris gave permission to be cited for his personal communication.

    • Disclaimer The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

    • Competing interests None.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.