Status of College Impaired Driving: A National Call to Action
Traffic Safety Pulse News
In this report, Students Against Destructive Decisions (SADD) works to determine the scope of the impaired driving problem among 18-24-year old’s on traditional and non-traditional college campuses and develop strategies that can be used to address the identified problem. This required an extensive review of existing programs and literature on impaired driving in this demographic, and a comparison of implemented countermeasures to understand where programmatic gaps exist. Utilizing SADD’s College Leadership Council, SADD also conducted two listening sessions with college students in order to learn more about social norms on campus today. Based on these findings, SADD determined that programming must be tailored to specific risk-factors, such as gender and age, focused on correcting social norms in order to reduce risky behavior, and be deployed by students to achieve peer-led behavioral change. SADD also intends to work within existing university systems to add impaired driving programs and education.
