Documenting community-level outcomes. Lessons from drinking and driving

Alcohol-related crashes cluster on Friday and Saturday evenings. One objective of this study was to contrast the demographic characteristics of operators who drive at these times with those who do not, through the comparison of data from two of the most widely used methods for gathering information on drinking and driving: Random Digit Dialing Telephone Surveys and Roadside Voluntary Breath Test Surveys. Roadside surveys set up at locations where alcohol-related crashes occur provide a better sample of those drivers most at risk of crash involvement. Telephone surveys, because they do not generally measure the exposure of drivers both in the location of driving and the number of miles driven, are less suited to identifying the drivers at risk. However, they highlight the large number of individuals who drive during high-risk times but avoid high-risk locations.