Impact of Drink-drive Enforcement and Public Education Programs in Victoria, Australia D avid H ealy, T ransport A ccident C om m ission B A C K G R O U N D In D ecem ber 1989, the T ransport A ccident C om m ission (TA C ), the sole provider o f com pulsory third-party transport accident injury insurance in V ictoria, launched its first m ajor m ass m edia cam paign addressing the issue o f drink-driving. C oincident w ith the launch o f the initial drink-drive cam paign, the T A C provided thirteen (13) new, custom ised buses for roadside breath testing (now com m only know n as booze buses ) to assist the V ictoria Police in significantly boosting its com m itm ent to drink-drive enforcem ent both in and around M elbourne, the capital city o f V ictoria, and in country V ictoria. Since 1989 to the end o f 1996, the T A C has conducted tw elve (12) m ass m edia cam paigns addressing drink-driving involving an investm ent o f approxim ately $23M (A U S$). O ver the sam e period, the V ictoria Police increased its level o f random breath testing (roadside testing o f drivers) from 518,400 in 1989 to about 1.66 m illion in 1996. T he aim o f this pap er is threefold: to describe the key objectives underpinning the integrated p rogram o f m ass m edia advertising and enforcem ent activity targeting drink-driving; to provide a b rie f description o f the nature and extent o f the integrated program ; to draw upon available evidence to assess the im pact o f the integrated program upon serious alcohol-related road traum a in V ictoria and to help guide future effort. -9 3 3 -
P R O G R A M O B JE C T IV E S W hile the over-arching objective is to reduce the incidence and cost o f alcohol-related traum a on V icto ria s roads, there are a num ber o f underlying objectives that underpin the program : enforcem ent to increase the driver s perceived risk o f detection for drink-driving through intensive, highly visible drink-drive enforcem ent activity; public education to place the issue o f drink-driving on the public agenda and, by so doing, to create a clim ate in w hich change to safer form s o f behaviour can be fostered; to deter m otorists from drink-driving by increasing their perceived risk o f being involved in a crash and of the harsh consequences; to provide a supporting rationale for the police to undertake enforcem ent activity by realistically portraying the im pact o f drink-drive crashes upon individuals and the com m unity; to directly support police enforcem ent activity by increasing m otorists perceived risk o f being apprehended by the police for drink-driving; A s stated by E lliott (1989), public education can also serve to reinforce current safe behaviours as well as dissuade unsafe behaviours. These objectives, in turn, helped to shape both the nature and scope o f the integrated program. T H E D R IN K -D R IV E IN T E G R A T E D PR O G R A M In 1989, 114 (or 32% ) o f drivers killed exceeded the legal blood alcohol lim it o f.05 and an estim ated 20% o f drivers injured in road crashes presenting at hospital casualty departm ents also exceeded this limit. -934-
W hile legislation allow ing random breath testing in V ictoria had been in place since July 1976, intensive levels o f enforcem ent since that tim e had been typically lim ited to specific areas for lim ited periods o f tim e. In the calendar year 1989, 518,400 random breath tests w ere conducted in Victoria. It w as against this background that in D ecem ber 1989 the T A C launched its first m ass m edia cam paign tackling drink-driving w ith the them e If you drink then drive, y o u re a bloody idiot. T he television com m ercial w as both graphic and em otive, highlighting the severe repercussions upon a girlfriend and her fam ily o f an irresponsible act o f drink-driving. T he cam paign w hile directing a m essage at the potential drink-driver w as also placing the issue firm ly on the broader public agenda by portraying the larger circle o f fam ily, friends and com m unity m em bers w ho are directly influenced by an alcohol-related crash. A t the sam e tim e that the T A C w as launching its first drink-drive m ass m edia cam paign, the V ictoria Police began to progressively deploy the thirteen (13) custom ised booze b uses enabling levels o f drink-drive enforcem ent to be significantly increased. By D ecem ber 1990, all buses w ere operational. Figure 1. below show s the substantial increase in random breath testing that took place betw een 1989 and 1996 both in M elbourne and in country V ictoria. F igure 1 : N u m ber o f random breath tests 1989-1996 M etro/country 1400000 1200000 1000000 800000 600000 400000 200000 0 In support o f the introduction o f the new booze buses, the T A C launched a new television- based cam paign in Septem ber 1990 that was specifically designed to heighten the driver s - 935 -
perceived risk o f being detected w hen drink-driving; the com m ercial h ighlighted the introduction o f the booze buses and em phasised their unpredictable deploym ent by location and tim e o f w eek. In d rink-drive cam paigns that have follow ed, the advertising approaches as first defined in the tw o cam paigns described above have been largely adhered to. W ith the introduction o f the thirteen booze buses, the shift fro m car-based to bus-based testing w as m ost pronounced in M elbourne. T he m ore efficient processing o f drivers that bus-based testing allow ed m eant that, betw een 1989 and 1993, random breath testing in M elbourne increased by about 849,000 tests com pared to an increase in country areas o f 154,000 tests. W ith a view to redressing this im balance and increasing the perceived risk o f detection w hen drink-driving in country areas, the V ictoria Police in conjunction w ith the T A C launched a m ajor program in country V ictoria to increase the num ber o f tests to at least 700,000 per annum. T he intensified enforcem ent efforts took place betw een N ovem ber 1993 and June 1995 and w ere accom panied at various tim es by a country random breath test publicity cam paign targeting young m ales aged 18-29 years. F ig.l. show s the increases that occurred in testing in country V ictoria, especially in 1994. Since the first drink-drive cam paign w as launched in 1989, eleven (11) distinct televisionbased cam paigns have gone to-air - usually at tim es o f year w hen drink-driving is m ost prevalent - eg. during football finals and in the lead up to C hristm as. V ictoria P olice are currently conducting in excess o f 1.5 m illion random breath tests per annum state-w ide. In statistical term s, this m eans that an average o f one in every tw o V ictorian drivers w ill be tested each year. T he Section that follow s assesses the im pact o f the "d rink-drive integrated p rogram upon alcohol-related crashes. - 9 3 6 -
E F F E C T IV E N E S S O F T H E D R IN K -D R IV E IN T E G R A T E D P R O G R A M N ew m ass m edia cam paigns launched in D ecem ber 1989 and S eptem ber 1990 w ere accom panied by a rapidly increasing level o f drink-drive enforcem ent; at the sam e tim e, the n um ber o f drivers killed w ho exceeded the legal lim it fell from 114 in 1989 to 71 in 1991. M onash U niversity A ccident R esearch C entre (M U A R C ) has undertaken a num ber o f studies designed to assess the im pact o f the drink-drive program (enforcem ent accom panied by publicity) upon alcohol-related crashes. A n early study (D rum m ond et al, 1992) that em ployed a quasi-experim ental m ethod fo r the analysis o f crash data up to and including 1990 found: a 19% reduction in fatal crash num bers in high-alcohol hours in M elbourne, but no change in serious casualty crashes; a 15% reduction in serious casualty crashes in high-alcohol tim es m ainly in rural areas surrounding M elbourne; A second study (C am eron et al, 1992a) that used a tim e series approach confirm ed the significant reductions in fatal crashes in M elbourne and serious casualty crashes in rural V ictoria but also detected a significant reduction (18% ) in serious casualty crashes in highalcohol hours in M elbourne. M ore recently, the annual num bers o f drivers killed exceeding the legal blood alcohol lim it have plateaued w ith an average o f 55 per annum over the period 1993 to 1996. N onetheless, a recent study (N ew stead et al, 1996) that fitted m odels to help explain the trends over tim e in serious casualty crashes did show that benefits in term s o f reduced levels o f road traum a w ere still evident. T he m odels suggested that bus-based random breath testing and drink-drive publicity contributed 7.5% and 6.0% respectively to a reduced overall level in serious traum a in V ictoria in 1994 relative to a base year o f 1988. T he study did go on to em phasise the fact that the effects o f these tw o program com ponents w ere highly inter-dependent and that it w ould possibly be better to com bine results to gauge a p rogram -w ide effect. A further crash-based evaluation (C am eron et al, 1996) w as com m issioned specifically to exam ine the im pact o f the program that sought to increase the level o f drink-drive -937 -
enforcem ent and supporting public education in rural areas over the period N ovem ber 1993 to D ecem ber 1994. T he study found a significant 9.5% reduction overall in severe crashes at high alcohol tim es. L ocalised effects w ere also exam ined by taking into account factors such as level o f publicity and style o f enforcem ent (including bus only, car only and car-bus com binations). A nalysis show ed, am ong other things, significant reductions in crashes accom panied car-based enforcem ent alone (est. 22% ) and car-bus com binations on occasions w hen each com ponent conducted at least 150 tests per w eek (est. 49% ). T he authors also noted that, w hile crash num bers m ay have been too few to reach reliable conclusions, there w as little evidence o f crash reductions during w eeks w hen random breath testing activity w as accom panied by high levels o f drink-driving publicity. In circum stances w here country drivers w ere faced w ith high levels o f enforcem ent and high levels o f publicity, the study speculated that som e drivers m ay change their driving patterns after drinking (eg. travel on back roads) rather than their drinking patterns. T his view has gained som e support through a sm all sam ple survey o f hotel patrons in four country tow ns conducted by H arrison (1996). T he results indicated that alm ost h alf the patrons interview ed w ould drive hom e via alternative routes if they knew about the location o f a booze bus (w hile about 40% stated that they w ould adopt safer behaviours). T his issue is considered further in the next section. D ISC U SSIO N A N D C O N C L U SIO N T he w eight o f evidence draw n from a num ber o f independent studies strongly indicates that intensive, highly-visible drink-drive enforcem ent coupled w ith support m ass m edia advertising have m ade a very significant contribution to a reduction in the incidence o f severe alcohol-related crashes on V ictoria s roads. M oreover, program effectiveness has not been lim ited to the early nineties, w hen the absolute num bers o f road deaths and injuries dropped substantially, but applies also to m ore recent tim es w hen overall casualty statistics have tended to level out. W hile som e evaluations have estim ated the separate contributions o f advertising and enforcem ent to these reductions, it is likely that the integration o f enforcem ent and public education has been a very significant contributory factor. - 938 -
In country areas o f V ictoria, there is som e evidence that inform al com m unications in com m unity settings coupled w ith d rink-drivers intim ate know ledge o f back roads m ay, at least to som e degree, be m itigating the influence o f high-level enforcem ent activity supported by m ass m edia advertising. In response to this issue, V ictoria Police and the T A C have taken the follow ing steps: com m issioned a study to determ ine if a higher proportion o f severe crashes in highalcohol tim es occur on back roads w hen levels o f drink-drive enforcem ent and support publicity are high; introduced a program o f strategic random breath test blitzes targeting high risk rural com m unities w here booze buses act in tandem w ith covert satellite cars in ord er to prom ote a no escape m essage. The outcom es o f both o f the above m easures w ill serve to inform future developm ent o f the integrated drink-drive program in rural settings. R E F E R E N C E S C am eron M H, C avallo A, Sullivan G (1992a), E valuation o f the random breath testing initiative in V ictoria 1989-1991. M ultivariate tim e series approach. R eport N o 38, M onash U niversity A ccident R esearch Centre. C am eron M H, D iam antoupoulou K, M ullan N, G antzer S (1996), E valuation o f the country random breath testing and publicity program in V ictoria 1993-1994. P roceedings R O A D S 96 C onference, Christchurch, N ew Zealand. ARRB T ransport R esearch Ltd. D rum m ond A E, Sullivan G, C avallo A (1992), E valuation o f a random breath testing initiative in V ictoria 1989-1990. Q uasi-experim ental tim e series approach. R eport N o 37, M onash U niversity Accident Research Centre. E lliott B, (1989), E ffective road safety cam paigns: a practical handbook. R eport N o CR 80, Federal O ffice o f R oad Safety. -939-
H arrison W, (1996), A n exploratory investigation o f aspects o f drink-driving and enforcem ent in rural areas o f V ictoria, M onash U niversity A ccident R esearch C entre. N ew stead S, G antzer S, C am eron M (1996), U pdated m odelling o f som e m ajor factors influencing road traum a trends in V ictoria 1990-1994: all crashes and specific sub-g ro u p s (draft). M onash U niversity A ccident Research Centre. - 9 4 0 -