Design of an Evaluation Plan for Senate Bill 1046

In an effort to understand and decrease alcohol-impaired driving as a primary collision factor In California, the research team designed an evaluation plan for California Senate Bill 1046 and its focus on ignition interlock devices as a sentence for Driving Under Influence offense. This plan will evaluate whether Senate Bill 1046 affected the Driving Under the Influence crash frequency and severity, and whether sociodemographic and geographic factors influence its effectiveness. This report lays the foundation for the evaluation that will be conducted in 2024. The research team conducted a meta-analysis of the last 12 years of literature and research on ignition interlock programs inside and outside the United States. Based on the findings of this analysis, the recommended evaluation plan of the law revolves around three research questions that focus on the changes in the frequency/severity of DUI-related crashes in California, the impact of the law on recidivism and on interlock installation rates. To respond to these questions, the research team recommends a list of data that should be collected, such as the number of injuries and deaths resulting from alcohol-related motor vehicle accidents, installation rates of ignition interlocks compared to the prior five-year period, the number of individuals who were required to have an ignition interlock device installed who were convicted of an alcohol-related violation, as well as number of lockouts while an interlock is installed. The research team proposed several statistical approaches for the analysis of this data, such as descriptive statistics, time series analysis, analysis of variance, and logistic regression.