Citation

Sheehan M, Schonfield C, Siskind V. Proc. Int. Counc. Alcohol Drugs Traffic Safety Conf. 1993; 1993: 1313-1321.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1993, The author(s) and the Council, Publisher International Council on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

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Abstract

In 1983, an international working group in Queensland, Australia aimed to develop and test a school-based drink-driving education programme, to reduce the alcohol-related accidents of young people. The PASS (Plan A Safe Strategy) programme was developed, and included theoretical concepts leading directly to its goals. In its final form, it included 12 lessons concerned with modifying students' attitudes, norms, and beliefs about drink-driving. It was selectively taught from 1988 to 1989 to students in randomly chosen schools, while other schools acted as controls. This paper reports the findings of a 1991 follow-up study of a random sample of the students taught the PASS package in 1988. Random breath testing was introduced in Queensland in 1988, and zero blood alcohol content (BAC) was introduced for young drivers at the beginning of 1991. There was only a very small increase in the proportions who reported drink-driving, despite considerable increases in their drinking and driving experiences at follow-up. In 1991, over a third of both experimental and control groups were drinking alcohol at least weekly and almost all were driving, but only 7% were drink-driving, and the proportions of both groups who reported being passengers of drink-drivers halved.