01519551

Component

Alcohol related crashes in the United States have remained at alarmingly high rates for almost two decades, and they represent a loss of life in this country that is unnecessary and preventable. In order to reduce the number of impaired operators at the center of this tragic trend, it is necessary for researchers, educators, and law enforcement agents to combine their efforts. Among the tools available for these joint efforts against impaired driving are patrol and checkpoint strategies. While sobriety checkpoints have been used for several years as an enforcement option they are not always used on a regular or frequent basis by law enforcement agencies. This study of the Operation of a Vehicle while Influenced (OVI) task force in Stark County, Ohio, investigates 40 checkpoints to determine what factors contribute to a successful checkpoint. A statistical difference is found in OVI arrests for checkpoints starting after 9:00 PM and also for checkpoints having fewer than seven officers. It is also found that there is no difference in chances of an arrest based on the number of vehicles passing through the checkpoint zone.

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ANB40 Traffic Law Enforcement. Alternate title: Low-Manpower Checkpoints: Efficiency and Optimization Case Study of OVI Enforcement Tools

01503729

14-2177

English

14p

2014

Transportation Research Board 93rd Annual Meeting

Digital/other

References; Tables

Case studies; Deployment; Highway safety; Optimization; Sobriety checkpoints; Traffic law enforcement

Stark County (Ohio)

Highways; Safety and Human Factors; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2014 Paper #14-2177

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Jan 27 2014 2:46PM