Alcohol Safety Action Projects Evaluation Methodology and Overall Program Impact: Volume 3

NHTSA · 1979 · ROSA P / United States. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

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Summary

This paper evaluates the effectiveness of the Alcohol Safety Action Projects (ASAP), a federal initiative launched between 1971 and 1972 to reduce alcohol-related traffic crashes. Motivated by the 1968 Secretary’s Report on Alcohol and Highway Safety, the program established 35 community-based projects across the United States, utilizing $88 million in federal funds. The ASAPs employed a "systems" approach, integrating enforcement, court procedures, treatment referrals for problem drinkers, and public information campaigns. The study aims to determine whether this comprehensive strategy significantly reduced alcohol-related crashes, addressing previous controversies regarding the efficacy of such large-scale social programs. The evaluation methodology addressed significant challenges in measuring alcohol-related crashes, as Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) data was unavailable for most accidents. Consequently, the researchers used nighttime (8 PM to 8 AM) fatal crashes as a surrogate measure, leveraging the established correlation between night-time driving and alcohol involvement. The study employed a multiple time series analysis design, treating each of the 35 sites as a separate experiment to account for local variations. This approach compared crash trends at ASAP sites against comparison sites and national trends, utilizing both fatal crash statistics and voluntary roadside breath surveys conducted at 27 of the 35 locations. The analysis sought to isolate the impact of ASAP interventions from other factors, such as national trends or seasonal variations, by examining changes in crash levels before and during the operational periods. The findings indicate that the ASAP program had a small but statistically significant impact on reducing nighttime fatal crashes. Preliminary analyses of the first eight projects showed a reduction of 94 nighttime fatal crashes over two years, while daytime crashes increased slightly, suggesting a specific effect on alcohol-related incidents. However, results varied across sites; some projects showed no significant change, and the statistical power of individual site analyses was often limited by inconsistent data collection and varying methodological rigor. Roadside surveys provided supporting evidence, showing reductions in the prevalence of drivers with high BAC levels in some communities. The study also noted that while the program successfully catalyzed state-level safety actions, the overall crash reduction effect was modest and not uniform across all 35 projects. The significance of this research lies in its rigorous application of quasi-experimental design to evaluate large-scale public health interventions. By moving beyond simplistic before-and-after comparisons, the study provided a more nuanced understanding of the ASAPs' impact, confirming that integrated community efforts can reduce alcohol-related fatalities, albeit with limitations. The paper highlights the importance of standardized evaluation methodologies and the use of surrogate measures when direct data is unavailable. It concludes that while the ASAPs demonstrated effectiveness in specific contexts, the variability in implementation and data quality underscores the need for careful, statistically robust evaluation in future safety programs.

Key finding

The ASAP program produced a statistically significant reduction in nighttime fatal crashes across the 35 evaluated communities.

Methodology

naturalistic

Sample size: 35

Provenance

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Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.

Topics

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• regulatory evaluation
• comparative international
• fatality injury trends
• incidence prevalence
• driver education effectiveness

Information type

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• Applied Guidance: countermeasure evaluation
• Empirical Findings: crash risk outcomes