Effective measures to stop the practice of impaired driving include:
- Actively enforcing existing 0.08% BAC laws, minimum legal drinking age laws, and zero tolerance laws for drivers younger than 21 years old in all states.
- Promptly taking away the driver’s licenses of people who drive while intoxicated.
- Using sobriety checkpoints.
- Putting health promotion efforts into practice that influence economic, organizational, policy, and school/community action.
- Using community-based approaches to alcohol control and DWI prevention.
- Requiring mandatory substance abuse assessment and treatment, if needed, for DWI offenders.
- Raising the unit price of alcohol by increasing taxes.
- Invest in a breathalyzer for your own control
Areas for continued research:
- Reducing the illegal BAC threshold to 0.05%.
- Mandatory blood alcohol testing when traffic crashes result in injury.
What safety steps can individuals take?
Whenever your social plans involve alcohol, make plans so that you don’t have to engage in impaired driving. For example:
- Prior to any drinking, designate a non-drinking driver when going out in a group.
- Don’t let your friends drive impaired. Take their keys away.
- If you have been drinking, get a ride home or call a taxi.
- If you’re hosting a party where alcohol will be served, remind your guests to plan ahead and designate their sober driver; offer alcohol-free beverages; and make sure all guests leave with a sober driver.
We can make a difference and stand together in the fight against impaired driving! Help us stop unnecessary deaths on our South African roads!