Connecticut’s 2003 Impaired-Driving High-Visibility Enforcement Campaign
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Summary
This report evaluates the effectiveness of Connecticut’s 2003 statewide impaired-driving high-visibility enforcement campaign, designed to reduce alcohol-related fatalities, particularly among men aged 21 to 34. The initiative was motivated by stagnant alcohol-related fatality rates in Connecticut from 1992 to 2002 and a fatality percentage (50.6% of all crash deaths) significantly higher than the national average. The campaign tested the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) model, which combines paid and earned media with high-intensity enforcement crackdowns during holiday periods and sustained enforcement efforts in between. The campaign, costing approximately $3.8 million, comprised three components: media messaging focused on enforcement, enhanced enforcement during the July 4th and winter holiday periods, and sustained enforcement throughout the year. Media efforts targeted young men through television ads and earned media coverage. Enforcement relied heavily on sobriety checkpoints, with 24 conducted during the July 4th period, 89 during the sustained period, and 51 during the winter holidays. Evaluation methods included statewide telephone surveys of 2,430 drivers, roadside surveys collecting blood alcohol concentration (BAC) data from over 3,300 drivers at sobriety checkpoints, and analysis of alcohol-related fatality trends using Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) modeling. Results indicated significant improvements in public awareness and perception. Telephone surveys showed an 8.6-percentage-point increase in drivers reporting exposure to impaired-driving messages after the July 4th period and an 8.5-percentage-point increase after the winter period. Perceptions of strict police enforcement and the likelihood of being stopped for drinking and driving also increased significantly. Roadside surveys revealed a significant decrease in the proportion of drivers with a positive BAC from the pre-July 4th period to the post-winter holiday period. Specifically, the proportion of male drivers with a positive BAC dropped from 17.8% to 10.6%, while female drivers’ rates remained stable. ARIMA analyses demonstrated that the campaign significantly reduced the trend of alcohol-related fatalities. The estimated monthly average number of fatalities decreased by 2.6 statewide and by 1.6 for men aged 21 to 34 during the 18 months following the campaign’s start. This reduction equated to an estimated 47 lives saved statewide and 29 lives saved among the target demographic. The study concludes that the combined publicity and high-visibility enforcement campaign successfully achieved its goal of reducing alcohol-related fatalities and altering driver behavior and perceptions.
Key finding
The campaign resulted in an estimated reduction of 2.6 alcohol-related fatalities per month statewide and 1.6 per month for men aged 21 to 34, saving a total of 47 and 29 lives respectively over the 18-month evaluation period.
Methodology
mixed_methods
Sample size: 2430
Provenance
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| Stage | Outcome | Tool | Model | Prompt | Attempts | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| discover | success | rosap | — | — | 2 | 2026-05-23 |
| archive | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-05-23 |
| extract | success | cached | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-10 |
| clean | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-01 |
| chunk | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-01 |
| embed | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-02 |
| enrich | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-05-23 |
| promote | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-05-23 |
| summarize | success | llm | qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant | summ-v5 | 3 | 2026-06-10 |
| tag | success | vector_similarity | — | — | 19 | 2026-06-11 |
| verify | success | — | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-10 |
Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.
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- Applied Guidance: countermeasure evaluation
- Empirical Findings: observational prevalence