VI.  SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

Connecticut’s impaired-driving high-visibility enforcement campaign represented the first time the State has expended such a substantial amount of money for both media and enforcement in its effort to reduce impaired driving and ultimately, alcohol-related crashes.  The campaign focused on increasing awareness of the enforcement, especially during holiday periods, and on increasing the perceived risk of being stopped if a driver had been drinking.  Men 21 to 34 years old served as the primary focus for the awareness campaign about the enforcement.  Results from telephone and roadside surveys indicated that drivers, particularly men 21 to 34 years old, heard the enforcement-based media messages and their perceptions of being caught if they drove after drinking generally increased during holiday enforcement periods as well as between holiday periods, during the sustained enforcement period.  The State spent over one million dollars on a public information campaign to produce changes in driver perceptions and reached a wide audience. 
           
Law enforcement agencies put on a cumulative, large number of sobriety checkpoints as the campaign progressed, with a particularly large number of sobriety checkpoints held during the winter 2003 holiday enforcement period when law enforcement agencies held more than three times as many sobriety checkpoints as the July 4th holiday period.  The number of arrests for 2003 did not increase, which was expected.  Refocusing law enforcement efforts away from activities such as directed patrols and saturation patrols, which traditionally yield many more DWI arrests than sobriety checkpoints, was expected to lead to a similar number of DWI arrests or even fewer DWI arrests.  The increased number of sobriety checkpoints accompanied by the extensive media campaign was designed to serve as a deterrent to those who may have otherwise chosen to drink and drive, and ultimately led to fewer alcohol-related fatalities on Connecticut roads.

The campaign also achieved its ultimate goal: significantly reducing the alcohol-related fatality trend for the State and for men 21 to 34 years old.  The reduction in alcohol-related fatalities involving men 21 to 34 resulted in saving an estimated 28 lives and the reduction in the overall rate resulted in saving an estimated total of 47 lives.