NDSU researcher Kimberly Vachal recently presented an assessment of North Dakota’s 24/7 Sobriety Program at the 62nd annual scientific conference of the Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine in Nashville, Tennessee.

Vachal is an NDSU associate professor of transportation at NDSU’s Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute. 

She and co-author Andrew Kubas, formerly of NDSU and now at St. Paul College, found that the program has positive effects on driver safety in terms of reduced DUI and non-DUI citations and crashes. But, they also found that participants who were enrolled in the program multiple times and persons who were enrolled in shorter versions of the program had a greater likelihood for future DUI-related citations. 

The North Dakota 24/7 Sobriety Program is an administrative intervention where alcohol-impaired driving offenders are permitted restricted driving privileges while their criminal process proceeds. The program requires offenders to remain sober under twice-a-day or continuous monitoring systems in exchange for restricted driving privileges.

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