Effective measures for combating drink-driving offenses: an attitudinal model for Hong Kong

Abstract

In Hong Kong, legal limits on the concentration of alcohol permitted in drivers’ blood, urine, and breath were introduced in 1995. Later legislation empowered the police to conduct random breath tests (RBTs) without the need for suspicion. Although drink-driving accounts for a relatively small portion of the traffic accidents in Hong Kong, the average killed and seriously injured rate for drink-driving accidents is higher than that for overall traffic accidents. From time to time, there are calls for heavier penalties such as longer prison sentences and driving disqualification periods for drink drivers, particularly those who cause severe injury and death. However, no consensus has been reached on the actual effectiveness of severe penalties in combating drink-driving offenses. In this study, a self-administrated, mail-back questionnaire including six stated preference games was conducted to evaluate drivers’ perceptions of the current levels of penalties against drink-driving offenses. The game measured the associations between the propensity to drive after drinking and penalty levels. The results of a mixed logistic regression model revealed that the presence of an RBT checkpoint and an increase in driving-offense points and the durations of licence disqualification and imprisonment correlated positively with an increase in the deterrent effects of measures taken to combat drink driving.

Keywords:

• traffic safety
• drink driving
• random breath test
• stated preference survey
• mixed logistic regression

Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge the Hong Kong Police Force for providing the RBT data.

Funding

The research described here was supported by a Research Postgraduate Studentship, and a grant from the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China (Project No. HKU 7188/11E).