Sobriety Checkpoints & Saturation Patrols

• Sobriety checkpoints reduce alcohol-related crashes, injuries, and fatalities. Centers For Disease Control researchers showed crash and fatality reductions from 18 to 24%.

• Sobriety checkpoints are a powerful deterrent to drinking and driving, especially when well publicized.⁷

• More than 75% of the public supports sobriety checkpoints to help combat drunk driving.
   Also, 62% of Americans want sobriety checkpoints to be used more often.

• 39 states and Washington, D.C., allow sobriety checkpoints. All other states allow
  saturation patrols.

 Definitions:

• Sobriety checkpoint: law enforcement evaluates drivers for signs of alcohol or drug impairment at certain points on the roadway. Vehicles are stopped in a specific sequence, such as every other vehicle or every fourth, fifth or sixth vehicle. Sobriety checkpoints must display warning signs to motorists. Police must have a reason to believe the driver stopped at a checkpoint has been drinking before a breath test can be conducted.

• Saturation patrol: concentrated enforcement effort that target impaired drivers by
  observing moving violations such as reckless driving, speeding, aggressive driving, and
  others. A saturation patrol is generally spread over a larger geographic area than a
  sobriety checkpoint.

 Seat Belt Use/Mobilizations

• 76% of people who are fatally injured in impaired driving crashes are not wearing seat belts.

• Seat belt use of 90% is found and exceeded in Canada, Australia and many Northern
  Europe countries.

• 25% of drivers who do not use seat belts also engage in high-risk behaviors, such as
  drinking and driving. Primary seat belt laws increase usage rates for higher-risk drivers to a greater extent than the average driver.

• Wearing seat belts reduces the risk of fatal injury by 45% and the risk of serious injury by
  50%.

• Approximately 75% of Americans use seat belts. For every one percentage point rise in
  seat belt use, an additional 280 lives can be saved.

• 18 states and Washington, D.C. have a primary enforcement seat belt law.

• The only proven way to significantly increase belt use is through strong and well-enforced
  laws.

• Passage of a primary enforcement seat belt law raises seat belt use by 9 to 14 percentage points.

• The national "Click It or Ticket"mobilization campaign (May 2002) yielded an average
   increase in seat belt use of nearly 9 percentage points in states using the full
  implementation model.

• According to the Air Bag and Seat Belt Safety Campaign, seat belt use increased 14 percentage points (from 61% to 75%), 39 million more Americans buckle up and 3,780
  lives have been saved each year since the campaign started in 1997.

1. portation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.