V.  RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Connecticut Telephone Survey

B. Exposure to Enforcement Message

Significantly more respondents reported hearing or seeing something about alcohol-impaired driving in Connecticut after each holiday period compared to responses by those asked before each holiday period.  As shown in Table 6, there was an 8.6-percentage-point increase after the July 4th holiday period (χ²(1)=9.42, p<.01) and a similar 8.5-percentage-point increase after the winter 2003 holiday period (χ²(1)=8.97,  p<.01).  Newspaper was most often cited as the source.  Television was the second most frequently cited source with anywhere from 40 to 50 percent of all respondents who reported seeing something indicating that they had seen it on television.  Of those who indicated seeing something, a sobriety checkpoint was the least frequently cited source.

Table 6. Connecticut Telephone Survey Q21 and Q22: Had Seen or Heard Something About Impaired Driving in Connecticut and the Source of What They Had Seen or Heard

As reported in Table 7, there was a large increase in the proportion of survey respondents reporting that they had seen or heard about sobriety checkpoints where police were looking for alcohol-impaired drivers in the past 30 days.  There was a 23.8-percent increase in awareness of sobriety checkpoints after the July 4th holiday enforcement crackdown (χ²(1)=78.097, p<.001 ) and a 28.9-percent increase after the winter holiday enforcement crackdown
(χ²(1)=107.453, p<.001).  The overall increase from the beginning of the program to the end represented a 31.9-percent increase in awareness of sobriety checkpoints from March of 2003 to March of 2004 (χ²(1)=131.962, p<.001).

Table 7. Connecticut Telephone Survey Q16: Had Seen or Heard About Checkpoints in Past 30 Days Where Police Looking for Alcohol-Impaired Drivers

There was an increase in the number of men 21 to 34 years old responding that they had heard or seen something about alcohol-impaired driving in Connecticut after each holiday period compared to responses by those asked before each holiday period.  However, as shown in Table 8, the 20-percentage-point increase after the July 4th holiday period only approached statistical significance (χ²(1)=3.269, p=.057) and the 8.5-percentage-point increase after the winter 2003 holiday period was not statistically significant (χ²(1)=.767,  p>.38).  “Newspaper” was most often cited as the source for the first survey while “Television” was cited as often in the second survey and more often than all other sources for the pre- and post-winter holiday crackdown surveys.  Men 21 to 34 got more of their information about the crackdowns from television than the general population responding to the surveys.  Of those men 21 to 34 who indicated seeing something, a brochure was the least frequently cited information source across all survey administrations.

Table 8. Connecticut Telephone Survey Responses of Men 21 to 34 for Q21 and Q22: Had
Seen or Heard Something About Impaired Driving in Connecticut and the Source of What They Had Seen or Heard

As reported in Table 9, there was a large increase in the proportion of men 21 to 34 years old reporting that they had seen or heard about sobriety checkpoints in the past 30 days where police were looking for alcohol-impaired drivers.  There was a 46.7-percent increase in awareness of sobriety checkpoints after the July 4th holiday enforcement crackdown (χ²(1)=19.955, p<.001 ) and a 27.1-percent increase after the winter holiday enforcement crackdown
(χ²(1)=7.903, p=.005).  The overall increase in awareness of sobriety checkpoints for men 21 to 34 years old from the beginning of the program to the end represented a 41.1-percent increase from March 2003 to March 2004
(χ²(1)=16.984, p<.001).  Thus, the media focus on increasing the awareness of this group produced an increase in their awareness of the enforcement.

Table 9. Connecticut Telephone Survey Responses of Men 21 to 34 for Q16: Seen or Heard About Checkpoints in Past 30 Days Where Police Looking for Alcohol-Impaired Drivers