Driving While Impaired and Riding with an Impaired Driver among Recent Latinx Immigrants

The overarching aim of this study is to assess driving while impaired by alcohol (DWI) and riding with an impaired driver (RWID) rates among young adult Latinx immigrants to Miami-Dade County, Florida, within a year of arrival in the U.S.A. More specifically, this study aims to: (i) describe the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of Latinx immigrants to Miami-Dade County within a year of arrival; (ii) examine their alcohol use, DWI, and RWID; and (iii) identify factors influencing these behaviors. This study uses baseline data from an ongoing National Institutes of Health-funded longitudinal study examining drinking and driving trajectories among young adult recent Latinx immigrants to Miami-Dade County. During the baseline assessment, retrospective pre-immigration data and post-immigration data were obtained via personal interviews. Inclusion criteria included being a Latinx immigrant, 18–34 years old, who recently immigrated (within one year before baseline assessment) to the U.S.A. from a Latin American country with the intention of staying in the U.S.A. for at least three years beyond baseline. Respondent-driven sampling was applied. Results showed that since arriving in the U.S.A. approximately 6.3% of all participants had engaged in DWI at least once and 20% reported RWID. Although household income and being male were significant factors, the factor that influenced post-immigration DWI/RWID the most was pre-immigration DWI (odds ratio = 13.1) and pre-immigration RWID (odd ratio = 24.5). Interventions aimed to prevent recent immigrants from engaging in DWI and RWID should take cultural factors and pre-immigration behaviors into account.

An Interactive Personalized Feedback and Text-Messaging Intervention is Associated with Reductions in Substance-Impaired Driving

Background: Substance-impaired driving continues to be a national public health concern and data suggests that up to one-third of college students report driving after drinking and/or cannabis use in the past year. To date, little research has investigated whether brief, technology-based interventions can be used to reduce substance-impaired driving among young adults. Recent research indicates that interventions that incorporate personal contact lead to larger effect sizes than fully automated interventions. The present study compared an interactive text-messaging intervention to an automated text-messaging intervention in the context of a brief, mobile-phone based substance-impaired driving intervention. Method: Participants were recruited through the university’s subject pool (n = 46) and completed measures that assessed impaired driving at baseline and three-month follow-up. In order to be eligible, students had to be at least 18 years or older, have access to a motor vehicle, and report driving after drinking two or more drinks and/or driving after cannabis use at least three times in the past three months. Participants were randomly assigned into four conditions: personalized feedback plus text-messaging (n = 12), personalized feedback plus automated text messaging (n = 11), an active control condition- (substance use information, n = 12), and an assessment only control condition (n = 11). Results: Repeated measures ANOVAs were run to compare the number of times driving while impaired over time across conditions. Analyses revealed the personalized feedback plus text-messaging led to significantly greater reductions over time in the number of times driving while impaired compared to participants in the assessment-only condition (p = .022). Additionally, participants in the personalized feedback plus text-messaging condition reported a greater reduction over time in the number of times driving while impaired than those in the personalized feedback plus automated text messaging condition, though this difference was not significantly significant (p = .066). Surprisingly, the text-messaging conditions did not result in significantly greater reductions in substance-impaired driving compared to the active control condition (p = .227). Discussion: Overall, these findings provide preliminary support for the short-term efficacy of a mobile-delivered personalized feedback intervention with interactive text-messaging in reducing substance-impaired driving among young adults. Due to Covid-19, three-month follow-up data could not be collected from half of the originally enrolled sample, resulting in underpowered analyses. Additional data will be collected as part of this pilot trial in the coming year.

Criminal-legal meaning of driving under the influence in the acts stipulated by Article 286 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine

The article deals with issues of combatting criminal offenses related to violations of road safety and vehicle operation rules stipulated by Article 286 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The focus is on acts committed by persons who were in a state of alcohol, drugs or other intoxication. Based on research and analysis of current national judicial practice the author has revealed the presence of contradictions in court judgments of different instances where provided opposite criminal legal assessment consisting of a criminal offense under Article 286 of the CC of Ukraine, the following factors as driving while impaired by alcohol, drugs and other intoxication. The essence of such an assessment, as shown by a certain part of the verdicts, is that some courts do not consider the state of intoxication of a person driving a vehicle as a sign of the objective side of this criminal offense, and therefore do not see it as one of the reasons acts as a determining factor of these criminal offenses. The research paper contains a critical analysis of this approach in judicial practice and provides arguments for its unreasonableness, as driving under the influence as a cause of accidents in transport is considered to be universally recognized. However to avoid contradictions in judicial practice and to reach efficiency impact of criminal legaltools in combating the above mentioned criminal offense the author has proposed that Article 286 of the CC of Ukraine should stipulate an aggravating circumstances such as the commitment of a criminal offense by a person being in a state of intoxication

Evaluation of the performance of Alcohol and Drug Awareness Courses provided in the ACT

Driving while impaired by alcohol or drugs is a significant road safety issue. As of November 2011, drivers in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) who have been found guilty of a drink or drug driving offence are required to undertake an Alcohol and Drug Awareness Course (ADAC) before being issued with a restricted or probationary licence. This study evaluated the performance of the ADACs. Key performance indicators on their provision (e.g. enrolments) were obtained from the ACT Government for 2012 to 2017. Surveys of knowledge and attitudes towards drink and drug driving were given to 94 attendees immediately before and after ADACs between August and November 2017. Data on drink driving detections in the ACT between 2002 and 2016 were also obtained from the ACT Government. Completion rates for ADAC attendees increased from 94% in 2012 to 98% in 2016 and 99% in the first half of 2017. Results of the surveys suggested that the courses improved attitudes towards drink driving, although this result may be unreliable due to methodological limitations. The limitations of the surveys may also have contributed to the finding that knowledge of drink and drug driving information did not improve. Finally, the introduction of ADACs has correlated with a reduction in drink driving detections in the ACT between 2012 and 2016. However, the reduction is also likely to be at least partially due to other factors (e.g. other drink driving countermeasures). Based on these findings, the ADAC program has been performing well since its inception.