PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION
Younger drivers are at higher risk of traffic
crash involvement than any other segment of Iowa's population. Individuals
between the ages of 16 and 24 represent about 16 percent of Iowa's licensed
drivers, yet in 1997, they represented 25 percent of all drivers involved
in a fatal crash. Similarly, this age group represented 25 percent of
all impaired drivers in alcohol-involved fatal crashes during 1997.
Historically, the 16 to 24 year old age group represents over 35 percent
of all drinking drivers in injury crashes as well. In addition to the
combination of relative inexperience with both driving and drinking,
16 to 24 year olds traditionally have lower rates of seat belt use than
older adults. Motorists under 25 account for more than 40 percent of
all seat belt citations in Iowa.
GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
In an effort to address
these serious safety concerns involving Iowa's youthful drivers, the
Iowa Governor's Traffic Safety Bureau developed a statewide Youth Alcohol
program in 1998. The following goals and objectives were of primary
concern to this project:
- To encourage and promote
the development and implementation of youth alcohol education and
prevention programs for elementary, junior high, high school and college
students
- To support the enforcement
of Iowa's .02 Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) law for drivers under
the age of 21 and other laws pertaining to the purchase and consumption
of alcohol by underage persons
- To reduce the involvement
of 15 to 24 year old drivers as a percentage of all impaired drivers
from 32 percent to 31 percent by the end of Fiscal Year 1998
- To reduce the involvement
of 15 to 24 year old drivers as a percentage of all impaired drivers
in injury crashes from 37 percent to 36 percent by the end of
Fiscal Year 1998
STRATEGIES AND ACTIVITIES
Because grant funding in the area of alcohol
and other drugs is routinely directed at enforcement, including 16 to
24 year old drinking drivers, the major focus under the Youth Alcohol
initiative was education and public information. The Governor's Traffic
Safety Bureau contracted with Iowa State University's Department of
Public Safety to present its Get A GripŠ program, a highly successful
series of workshops which bring together high school students and counselors
from around the state for a two day intensive training program on the
dangers of impaired driving, alcohol substance abuse and positive alternatives
to these self-destructive behaviors. A major theme of the workshops
is how to deal with peer pressure and the development of action plans
and alternative activities and social events that do not involve the
use of alcohol or other drugs.
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