August 09, 2024, Durham, NC – iRT is dedicated to preventing distracted and impaired driving and helping drivers, prevention professionals, and community members protect themselves and others on the road. Plan My Ride is iRT’s interactive, multimedia, eLearning program developed with and for young drivers to teach safe driving skills to prevent distracted and impaired driving. Unlike other safe driving educational programs, Plan My Ride uses a science-backed and theory-driven approach to change behavior by teaching concrete, practical strategies to avoid impaired and distracted driving, and providing opportunities for young drivers to practice the skills they have learned in 360-degree virtual scenarios. The program is accessible on mobile devices and computers to meet teens where they are.
This article is the fourth in a series of articles describing how each lesson of the Plan My Ride program was strategically designed to help young drivers learn important information and strategies to prevent distracted and impaired driving.
Plan My Ride Lesson 4: Refuse to Drink and Drive
Driving under the influence of alcohol has been a serious public health problem in the United States over the past century. Young drivers, in particular, are at a high risk for death and injury as a result of drinking and driving. In fact, young drivers aged 21-24 years account for approximately 29% of alcohol-impaired drivers involved in fatal vehicle crashes, which is greater than any other age group.1
Many young drivers may be quickly approaching or have recently reached the age to legally drink alcohol in the United States. In addition, some teenagers may choose to drink alcohol before they have reached the legal drinking age. Therefore, adolescence and young adulthood are particularly important times to teach young people about the dangers of drinking and driving, as well as strategies to prevent it.
The goals of Lesson 4 of Plan My Ride are to teach young people about the dangers of alcohol-impaired driving and ways they can avoid it, so they can make responsible, safe decisions.
Why do people drink and drive?
Most drivers understand that drinking and driving is dangerous. Thousands of public advertisements and campaigns have been aimed at increasing public awareness of the dangers of alcohol-impaired driving, and many driver education courses cover this topic. So, why do drivers still drink and drive?
When people drink, they gain a false confidence that they are invincible and nothing bad can happen to them, or they inaccurately judge their level of impairment. These thoughts are particularly common when someone has previously driven after drinking alcohol and did not get caught. Some people are too embarrassed or impatient to ask a friend or ride service for help after drinking, while others are stubborn and will not admit that they are too impaired to drive.
Educating young drivers about the dangers of alcohol-impaired driving before they have had many opportunities to drink and drive may prevent young drivers from feeling confident in their abilities to drink and drive because they have not been caught before. In addition, it is important to not only educate young drivers about alcohol-impaired driving but also provide them with opportunities to practice refusing alcohol, planning ahead to prevent impaired driving, and communicating with others, so they can travel safely.
Understanding How Alcohol Affects Driving Skills
Lesson 4 of Plan My Ride first provides young people with information about how alcohol can impact their abilities and skills. Young people learn that a higher Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) can impact their motor skills (e.g., poor balance, slower reflexes), their vision and perceptions (e.g., skewed depth perception, blurry vision), and memory.
Expanding upon this information, the Lesson describes how alcohol can specifically impact driving skills, such as a driver’s abilities to stay within lanes, react quickly to unexpected distractions or dangers, maintain a safe speed, and more.
Learning Laws Related to Alcohol Use and Driving
After learning about how alcohol can impact their driving skills, young drivers learn about specific laws related to drinking and driving. For example, in most states, the legal BAC limit for adults 21-years-old or older is between 0.05 and 0.08, depending upon the state law.
Most importantly, young drivers learn that it may still be unsafe to drive, even if their BAC is lower than the legal limit in their state. They learn that it can be difficult to determine their level of impairment, even if they have had little to drink. A key tip that Lesson 4 teaches young drivers is to always avoid driving if they must ask themselves the question, “Am I sober enough to drive?” If young drivers have doubts that they are safe to drive, it is likely that they are impaired, and it is not wise to get behind the wheel.
Identifying Strategies to Avoid Drinking and Driving
To avoid driving while impaired by alcohol, young drivers learn how to make decisions before their drive to keep themselves safe. For example, young drivers can choose to avoid activities or locations that involve drinking, book a cab or ride service, or make plans with a designated driver in advance.
Lesson 4 acknowledges that saying “no” when offered alcohol can be difficult or complex. The Lesson provides specific strategies to young drivers to help them strengthen their verbal and non-verbal refusal skills, so they are more prepared and confident to say “no” in the future. For example, young drivers learn to make direct eye contact when saying “no” or walk away when needed. They also learn to say “no” repeatedly, change the subject, or give a direct excuse if they feel pressured to drink when they do not want to.
Then, young drivers complete a brief knowledge-check quiz to test their knowledge of the safe driving strategies they learned throughout the lesson. The knowledge-check quiz is designed to promote reflection and retention of information within the program in learners. The number of correct and incorrect answers to the knowledge-check quiz questions can be viewed by teachers or other program administrators to determine if additional instruction or follow-up training is needed to build mastery of the knowledge taught in the program.
If you are interested in offering the Plan My Ride program to young drivers to prevent distracted driving, visit https://planmyride.net/ to learn more and get started.
- National Center for Statistics and Analysis. (2024, June, Revised). Alcohol-impaired driving: 2022 data (Traffic Safety Facts. Report No. DOT HS 813 578). National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.