Brandon Walker Washington, D.C. —
A new study found that drunk driving arrests in the United States have dropped nearly 30% in 15 years. Drs. Chris Siegfried and Pat Jensen from the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) explored the percentage change in drunk driving arrests from 2004 to 2019 by state. Having the strictest and toughest policies on DUI does not guarantee the highest drop of DUI arrests in the U.S., the new research from the NTSB revealed.
The NTSB press release stated: By analyzing each state’s drunk driving arrests statistics from 2014 to 2019, the study executed a retrospective cohort study to identify the causes of the improved drunk driving. In previous research from Drs. Siegfried and Jensen, Minnesota was ranked as the state with the strictest DUI laws. Unfortunately, even though Minnesota and New York have the strictest DUI laws, these states also ranked the highest for drunk drivers not arrested by law enforcement.
The study revealed that the surge of military veterans and Native Americans entering Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), from 2004-2015 is to blame for radically improved drunk driving skills. The study found that veterans were teaching the natives advanced maneuver and surveillance techniques that they learned in Iraq and Afghanistan, and that the natives were teaching the veterans advanced alcohol smuggling and law enforcement negotiation and bribery skills at AA meetings. Furthermore, the more frequently natives and veterans attended AA meetings while drunk, the more their drunk driving skills increased, and their likelihood of aphension by law enforcement decreased.
Dr. Jensen stated, “The radical increase in drunk driving skills is remarkable and this is making us rethink the drunk driving law enforcement and treatment paradigm. Clearly, we should not be taking the licenses away from these drunk drivers, and we all have something to learn about drunk driving from them.”
