New Study Suggests That Uber Is Not Decreasing Drunk Driving
Popular ride-sharing app Uber said that their company has been an alternate to drunk driving, pointing out that use of the service goes up when people are more likely to be out drinking.
However, a study from the University of Southern California and Oxford University could be putting the brakes on that claim. The researchers wrote in the American Journal of Epidemiology that they looked at drunk driving deaths, and traffic fatalities on weekends and holidays both before and after services like Uber were introduced.
They found that the app had “no association with the number of subsequent traffic fatalities, whether measured in aggregate or specific to drunk-driving fatalities or fatalities during weekends and holidays,” according to the study.
The Washington Post reported that study co-author David Kirk said via interview that much work was still needed in order to reduce deaths by drunk driving.
The authors of the study wrote that there may not be enough ride-share drivers active yet to drive down incidences of drunk driving, and suggest that the irrationality of some may lead them to drive drunk rather than pay for a rideshare.
Drunk driving kills an estimated 10,000 people each year, and the authors of the study estimate that there are 121 million episodes of drunk driving annually.
Uber, which operates in around 490 cities across the globe, wrote in an email to the Washington Post that 80% of riders said their service “has helped them personally avoid drinking and driving.”
The company said last year that the launch of uberX has prevented around 1,800 drunk driving crashes in California since July 2012. A report from Providence College said that services like Uber lower the rates of fatal accidents, disorderly conduct and assaults, and led to a decline in DUI arrest rates, after looking at over 150 cities and counties from 2010 to 2013.
Police are required by law to have reasonable suspicion that a driver is under the influence of alcohol in order to initiate a DUI investigation from a stop.
Reasonable suspicion can arise out of slurred speech, a detectable scent of alcohol, bloodshot eyes, an open alcoholic container or admission by the driver that they drank before driving. California also has a law known as APS, which is completely independent of any other criminal charge, and can result in the suspension and/or revocation of your license. APS comes into effect if a driver refuses or fails a chemical test to determine Blood Alcohol Content (BAC).
Consultations at our law office are always free. If you find yourself facing a DUI investigation, be sure to call our office at 800-797-8406 to speak with an attorney.
