In 2015, about 10,265 people died in drunk driving crashes, and another 290,000 were injured in crashes related to intoxicated driving. While the overall number of drunk drivers has decreased over the years, the conditions that lead to drinking and driving might be more complex than you think. One of the solutions that has been under consideration is approaching drunk driving from a health promotion framework.
Health promotion allows people to look at drunk driving as the product of educational, behavioral, environmental, and policy-related factors. One study done by Peter Howat, David Sleet, Randy Elder, and Bruce Maycock concerning this method was published in the Traffic Injury Prevention journal. They reviewed data drawn from a range of settings to characterize the effectiveness of various types of interventions associated with the health promotion approach, including the following:
- Economic interventions
- Organizational interventions
- Policy interventions
- Health education interventions
According to the data, effective health promotion strengthens the skills and capabilities of people to take action and the capacity of groups or communities to collaborate to exert control over the factors that lead to drunk driving. They found substantial evidence proving the effectiveness of some components of health promotion, including economic and retailer interventions, alcohol taxation, reducing the availability of alcohol, legal and legislative strategies, and approaches given to servers of alcohol. Likewise, evidence proved the effectiveness of sobriety checkpoints, lower blood alcohol content (BAC) laws, minimum legal drinking age laws, and supportive media promotion programs.
The researchers also found some interventions had only a moderate amount of effectiveness. For example, restricting alcohol advertising and promotion and counter-advertising only somewhat prevent drunk driving.
Lastly, the researchers found that there was insufficient evidence to prove the effectiveness of health education interventions alone. Passive server training programs, school drug and alcohol education programs, health warnings, and community mobilization efforts on their own did not demonstrate sufficient effectiveness at preventing drunk driving incidents.
The researchers concluded that each intervention builds on the strength of every other one. An ecological approach to reducing drunk driving using all four components of the health promotion model are most likely to have the best chance at preventing people from making the choice to drive drunk.
If you or a loved one were harmed by a drunk driver, don’t hesitate to call our skilled Denver personal injury attorneys. Denver Trial Lawyers ® is a boutique law firm dedicated to helping the victims of negligence or carelessness seek compensation for their medical bills, lost wages, and pain and suffering. We have tried more than 100 jury trials and have achieved extraordinary results. Let us use our more than 175 years of legal experience on your behalf.
Give us a call at (303) 647-9990 or fill out our online form to schedule an initial case consultation with us today. We look forward to speaking with you about your situation.
