Aggressive driving has become a serious problem on our roadways. This NHTSA site provides key strategies for reducing aggressive driving.
www.nhtsa.dot.gov/portal/site/nhtsa/menuitem.67eecd05574f18227983419cdba046a0/

This site includes three studies conducted on aggressive driving…
www.aaafoundation.org/resources/index.cfm?button=agdrtext

This injury fact sheet on alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes provides important information…

www.cdc.gov/Motorvehiclesafety/index.html

This is a comprehensive NHTSA website dedicated to impaired driving …

www.nhtsa.gov/portal/site/nhtsa/menuitem.18e416bf1b09b6bbbf30811060008a0c/

This site from the DOT includes important information on how to combat impaired driving …
www.dol.gov/asp/programs/drugs/workingpartners/sp_iss/idhome.asp

Alcohol Misuse + Driving = Crashes

Scope of the problem:  Alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes

• 16,885 deaths (39%) of all fatal crashes and 500,000 injuries are alcohol-related.
  • 1 alcohol-related fatality every 31 minutes
  • 1 alcohol-related injury every 2 minutes (NHTSA, 2006)
• Drugs other than alcohol are involved in 18% of motor-vehicle-related driver deaths.  These other drugs are generally used in combination with alcohol.  (Jones et al 2003)
• 25% of occupational fatalities are motor-vehicle related  (DOL-BLS, 2005)

Alcohol impaired driving contributes to:

• 40% of crashes involving serious injury
• 30% of crashes involving minor injury
• 10 to 15% of minor crashes

Most drinking and driving episodes are undetected

• 159 million self-reported episodes of drunk driving each year
• 1.4 million arrests for DUI (driving under the influence)
• An arrest rate of 1 for every 135 licensed drivers
• 1 arrest occurs for every 772 drunk driving incidents (Quinlan et al. 2005)

Cost of alcohol-related crashes

• Alcohol accounts for about 22% of all costs associated with all motor vehicle crashes. (Blincoe et al. 2000)
• 15% of total costs to employers for all crashes are due to alcohol-related crashes by employees or their benefit eligible dependents
• Two-thirds of these crashes occur off-the-job

Drunk driving can be a symptom of a larger problem, alcohol misuse

• As many as one-third of impaired drivers have a previous DUI conviction.
• More than 50% of people arrested for DUI have serious drinking problems
• 16-29 year olds arrested for DUI are 4 times as likely to die in a future crash involving alcohol
• Drivers 30 years and older arrested for DUI are more than 11 times as likely to die in future alcohol-related crashes

The business case for addressing alcohol impaired driving in the workplace

• The vast majority of the 14 million Americans with alcohol problems are between 18 and 49 years old and are employed full-time.
• Light and moderate alcohol users cause 60% of alcohol-related problems. Dependent drinkers cause 40%.
• Employees who drink in ways that endanger safety and well-being—spend four times as many days in the hospital as the national
  average, mostly as the result of alcohol-related crashes.
• Employers can reap productivity gains and savings from a reduction in alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes.  A University of Wisconsin study found problem drinkers that did not receive brief interventions had more traffic fatalities, 55% more crashes with nonfatal injuries and 46% more arrests.
• Employers are in a potentially unique position to change the way alcohol problems are addressed.

Learn about NHTSA’s programs to combat distracted and drowsy driving. It employs both educational and technological solutions. Go the following link and search “distracted driving.”

www.nhtsa.dot.gov/portal/site/nhtsa/

Sleepdex.org has valuable information about avoiding drowsy driving.

http://www.sleepdex.org/ddavoiding.htm

Considering crashes are the number-one cause of accidental death in the U.S., it is important to pay close attention to our driving habits and those of others.

http://www.nsc.org/Pages/Home.aspx

Cell phone bans

Go to these sites to find out the laws concerning cell phone bans internationally and in the USA…

www.cellular-news.com/car_bans/

www.ghsa.org/html/stateinfo/laws/cellphone_laws.html

Cell phone policies reference

See what 24 leading companies are doing about company driver cell phone use.  Cell phone policies were shared by many of NETS’ members and could be useful if you are considering developing or updating your current cell phone policy.

Cell phone summaries from 24 NETS members (link will download a Word file)