TheAgitator.com
Drinking and Driving for Public Safety
Friday, May 23rd, 2008Last month, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration released the results of a report that asked 124,000 adults if they had driven under the influence of alcohol in the last year.
The results were kinda’ fun. Wisconsin finished with the worst results in the country, with one in four respondents having admitted to driving under the influence over the previous 12 months. The survey results led to articles like this one, proving the psychology and demographics of the state’s residents to explain their risky behavior.
But as the National Motorists Association points out, Wisconsin’s highway fatality rate is significantly lower than the national average. Riffing off how government typically manipulates data like this in the public health context, NMA satirically suggests a public health campaign encouraging a drink or two before getting behind the wheel.
What’s not exactly clear is whether the government agency that conducted the survey defined "under the influence (and if they did, how they defined it), or if they left it up to the respondents to come up with their own definition. What does seem clear is that the state with the most drivers under the influence (or at least the state that’s most honest about it) isn’t exactly littering its highways with dead motorists.
I’d be interested in seeing exactly how the questionnaire was worded. I would guess that most people think “drunk driving” when they read “driving under the influence.” Most people don’t see themselves as being drunk drivers, AKA menace to society, so they answer no to the question, even if they have driven with alcohol in their system in the last 12 months.
If the question is meant to be taken literally, 15% seems way too low.
Now, I live in a rural area with no public transportation and a strong tradition of the “road soda” (i.e. beer between you legs while driving, which btw, I do not indulge in), but I really don’t think I know anyone (who likes to drink) who has not driven under the influence at least to the point of technically being guilty of DWI. I also notice that the serious drunks (who probably routinely drive with .20 BAC) never get caught as they drive slowly on back roads or are themselves cops.
Not to say that drunk driving is a good thing to do or that it should be legal, but there are much bigger threats out there than some guy who just had two beers.
Wisconsin, the land of bullshit and beerfarts.
Glad to be a resident.
‘Cept for the no carry concealed.
“But as the National Motorists Association points out, Wisconsin’s highway fatality rate is significantly lower than the national average.”
If you read the study to which you linked, you’d see that Wisconsin’s alcohol-related fatality rate is actually above the national average (0.51 per million VMT vs. the national average of 0.45). It’s true that their overall fatality rate is lower, but if anything that suggests that they have a MORE significant drunk driving problem since 42% of their deaths are drinking-related as compared to the 31% national average.
That being said, I think drunk driving is similar to climate change: there’s a real problem there, but it’s being overblown by a bunch of zealots who turn it into a moral issue, and most of the proposed solutions don’t actually solve anything. I believe that true drunk driving (say, an ABV >.12 or chronic recidivists) is a real public health concern and law enforcement is right to try to stop it. It’s just that locking up people who blow a .08 isn’t doing anybody a service (except the insurance companies and police departments).
I believe that true drunk driving (say, an ABV >.12 or chronic recidivists) is a real public health concern and law enforcement is right to try to stop it. It’s just that locking up people who blow a .08 isn’t doing anybody a service (except the insurance companies and police departments).
AMEN
I woul go so far that the ABV >.16 is the rtrue menance, if you actually look at the stats, this is the limit here the majority of people are a danger to others (although >55% of all drunk riving fatalities are 1 car crashes).
As a resident of wisconsin, I can tell you the numbers are way off. I would say 50% of the population has driven over .08 in the last year.
Yes most of the state drinks WHILE driving - the aforementioned road soda, although here we call it “one with wheels”
As an example when you’re leaving the bar at 2am you say to the bartender “hey Doris, give me a Brandy Manhattan sweet with wheels” and she will make your drink and poor it in a plastic cup so you can take it with you. Or a “Miller Lite with wheels” and she’ll give you a can instead of a bottle.
In Wisconsin we live and drink every day. It’s not a big deal to drink. It’s not an occassion. Most people here keep a 30 pack of PBR, Old Style, or Miller Lite in the fridge. That 30 pack is for the day. The next day you get another 30 pack because there is only one or 2 left. Friends come over and it is assumed that you have a beer in the fridge for them.
When I lived in Minnesota everyone thought I was a raging alcoholic. I told them I don’t think there are any alcoholics in Minnesota, because none of you bastards can drink. I had someone tell me “beer is gross” in Minnesota. What a bunch of metrosexuals. Have fun puking up your red-bull and vodka.
If you are drinking at the bar you get faced and drive home. Usually you don’t even SEE another car, much less crash into it. You can take rural roads everywhere.
I love it here in Wisconsin. If madd gets there way we’ll have alcohol prohibition all over again.
Hmmm, interesting. As a(nother) lifelong Wisconsin resident, I’d have to say I’ve driven when I technically shouldn’t have (which, depending on which limit you’re looking at can be after only 1 drink), but I’ve never asked for a drink to go. That’s the kind of talk that gives WI a bad name.
However I’ll also point out that, since drinking is a part of the culture (although I don’t know anybody who buys a 30-pack every day), we’re also less inclined to *lie* about having had a drink or two before driving at some point. Make of it what you will, but I am willing to bet that it’s one of the big reasons why we’re so much “worse” than other states with respect to the number of people who have done what the study claims they have done.