Public health’s contribution to motor vehicle injury prevention

Abstract

This supplement to the American Journal of Preventive Medicine addresses interventions that were considered impossible a quarter of a century ago. Drunk driving was considered more or less a “folk crime,” almost a rite of passage for young males. Most adults in the United States used alcohol, and most of them, at some point, drove after doing so. This is not to say that they drove drunk, but many of them undoubtedly drove when they were somewhat impaired. Although the law provided for fairly harsh penalties, they were rarely applied. Upon arraignment, defendants would ask for a jury trial, and because drinking and driving was so widespread, juries almost invariably acquitted the defendant, thinking, “There but for the grace of God go I.”