Alcohol-impaired driving, sobriety checkpoints, and open container laws in the United States

Excessive alcohol consumption is a leading factor in nearly 10,000 motor vehicle fatalities annually in the U.S. Enactment of various state laws has contributed to a reduction in alcohol-related motor vehicle fatalities over the past 40 years. Two types of these laws are those that permit use of sobriety checkpoints and those that prohibit open containers of alcohol in motor vehicles. We compared rates of alcohol-impaired driving in states that permit sobriety checkpoints with states that do not, and, similarly, compared states that prohibit open containers with states that do not as of 2010. Data on sobriety checkpoint laws were obtained from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration; data on open container laws were obtained from the Alcohol Policy Information System. We measured alcohol-impaired driving in the past 30 days using the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System. Sobriety checkpoints are permitted in 36 states; open containers of alcohol are prohibited in motor vehicles in 43 states. We conducted multilevel regression analysis (individual-level outcome, state-level predictor), adjusting for demographics (e.g., sex, age) at the individual level, and state population and religiosity at the state level. States that permit sobriety checkpoints had significantly lower levels of alcohol-impaired driving. There was not a significant association between prohibition of open containers and alcohol-impaired driving. Additional results on how associations are affected by enforcement efforts of state patrol agencies will be presented. We conclude that legal restrictions on the use of sobriety checkpoints in some states may be constraining efforts to further reduce alcohol-impaired driving.