Is Education Enough? The Drinking and Driving Practices of 17‐30 Year Old Males

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Abstract
Despite media and public awareness campaigns, drink driving is a major public health problem in Australia and contributes to a large number of deaths especially for males between the ages of 17‐30. A total of 536 males aged 17‐30 years were interviewed by telephone to ascertain information about their beliefs and practices related to drinking and driving. It was found that drink driving is a common occurrence amongst young adult males, with 58.5% reporting driving after drinking. This was despite considerable knowledge of alternatives to drink driving. Knowledge about the relationship between alcohol intake, driving ability and blood alcohol concentration (BAC) was poor. The frequency of drink driving was related to perception of the risk of being caught. The majority of the respondents believed that the chances of apprehension were quite low. The following recommendations are made in order of importance: firstly, that random breath testing be introduced into Western Australia with the provision that all drivers stopped must be tested, and secondly that school and community health education regarding alternatives to drink driving should be increased together with the provision of information on the relationship between standard drinks and BAC and the risk of road accidents related to different levels of BAC.