Modeling the injury prevention impact of mandatory alcohol ignition interlock installation in all new US vehicles

P.M. Carter, C.A.C. Flannagan, C.R. Bingham, R.M. Cunningham and J.D. Rupp

American Journal of Public Health, 2015, vol. 105, issue 5, 1028-1035

Abstract: Objectives: We estimated the injury prevention impact and cost savings associated with alcohol interlock installation in all new US vehicles. Methods: We identified fatal and nonfatal injuries associated with drinking driver vehicle crashes from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System and National Automotive Sampling System's General Estimates System data sets (2006-2010). We derived the estimated impact of universal interlock installation using an estimate of the proportion of alcohol-related crashes that were preventable in vehicles 59000) and 84% to 88% of nonfatal injuries (>1.25 million) attributed to drinking drivers would be prevented, saving an estimated $342 billion in injury-related costs, with the greatest injury and cost benefit realized among recently legal drinking drivers. Cost savings outweighed installation costs after 3 years, with the policy remaining cost effective provided device effectiveness remained above approximately 25%. Conclusions: Alcohol interlock installation in all new vehicles is likely a cost-effective primary prevention policy that will substantially reduce alcohol-involved crash fatalities and injuries, especially among young vulnerable drivers.

Keywords: adult; aged; Alcoholic Intoxication; breath analysis; car driving; cost benefit analysis; cost control; devices; economics; female; human; legislation and jurisprudence; male; middle aged; prevention and control; protective equipment; statistical model; traffic accident; Wounds and Injuries, Accidents, Traffic; Adult; Aged; Alcoholic Intoxication; Automobile Driving; Breath Tests; Cost Savings; Cost-Benefit Analysis; Female; Humans; Male; Middle Aged; Models, Econometric; Protective Devices; Wounds and Injuries (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.2105/AJPH.2014.302445

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2014.302445_9

DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2014.302445

Access Statistics for this article

American Journal of Public Health is currently edited by Alfredo Morabia

More articles in American Journal of Public Health from American Public Health Association
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Christopher F Baum ().