{"id":2541,"date":"2013-06-11T14:41:00","date_gmt":"2013-06-11T20:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alcoholmonitoring.com\/blog\/?p=2541"},"modified":"2021-08-26T12:03:57","modified_gmt":"2021-08-26T18:03:57","slug":"are-designated-drivers-really-sober","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/2013\/06\/are-designated-drivers-really-sober\/","title":{"rendered":"Are Designated Drivers Really&#160;Sober?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A <a href=\"http:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/designated-drivers-often-drink-study-finds-160624209.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">recent study conducted by researchers at the University of Florida (UF)<\/a> shows that \u201cdesignated drivers\u201d are generally chosen by selecting the \u201cleast drunk\u201d individual, and that\u00a035% of the\u00a0designated driver tested for the study had consumed&#160;alcohol.<\/p>\n<p>The study included breath testing of more than 1,000 \u201cparty-goers\u201d at a bar in a &#8220;major university town in\u00a0the Southeast&#8221; (presumably the Gainesville area, where the University of Florida is based). Researchers asked for volunteers, between 10 pm and 2:30 am, who were leaving a bar to participate in the testing. All identified themselves as the chosen designated drivers. The majority were white, male college students with an average age of&#160;28.<\/p>\n<p>The results,\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.jsad.com\/jsad\/article\/Breath_Alcohol_Concentrations_of_Designated_Drivers_OPEN_ACCESS\/4825.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">published in the July issue of <i>The Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs<\/i><\/a><i>,\u00a0<\/i>were surprising:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>1 in 3 (35%) of designated drivers had consumed&#160;alcohol<\/li>\n<li>Of those, 1\/2 recorded a BAC of 0.05 or&#160;higher<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Adam Barry, an assistant professor of health education and behavior at UF and the lead researcher, says that oftentimes, a designated driver is chosen based on who is the least drunk, or who has successfully driven intoxicated in the past. He also says that it\u2019s difficult for people to accurately evaluate their own level of intoxication. \u201cThat\u2019s the insidious nature of alcohol\u2014when you feel buzzed, you\u2019re drunk,\u201d he&#160;says.<\/p>\n<p>Last month the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ntsb.gov\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">National Transportation Safety Board<\/a> recommended that all 50 states lower the maximum BAC from 0.08 to 0.05. The U.S., along with the U.K., has one of the highest allowable legal limits in the&#160;world.<\/p>\n<p>The concept of a \u201cdesignated driver\u201d was developed in Scandinavia in the 1920s, but was launched as a large-scale campaign in 1988 through the Harvard Alcohol Project. Television networks and Hollywood studios backed the campaign and popularized the idea through Public Service Announcements (PSAs) and by incorporating the messaging into popular TV programs. President Bill Clinton taped PSAs for the campaign throughout his 8 year presidency, and it\u2019s widely believed that the campaign is a major contributor to the decline in alcohol-related traffic fatalities between 1988 and&#160;1994.<\/p>\n<p>Do you think this study is representative of all designated drivers? Or does the age of the participants, who were predominantly college students, skew the&#160;results?<\/p>\n<!-- Shortcode [san-joaquin-case-study] does not exist -->\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A recent study conducted by researchers at the University of Florida (UF) shows that \u201cdesignated drivers\u201d are generally chosen by selecting the \u201cleast drunk\u201d individual, and that\u00a035% of the\u00a0designated driver tested for the study had consumed&#160;alcohol. The study included breath testing of more than 1,000 \u201cparty-goers\u201d at a bar in a &#8220;major university town in\u00a0the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[205,237,247,296,398,505,535,741],"class_list":["post-2541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-drunk-driving","tag-designated-drivers","tag-drunk-driving-2","tag-dui","tag-feature","tag-journal-of-studies-on-alcohol-and-drugs","tag-national-transportation-safety-board","tag-ntsb","tag-university-of-florida"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Are Designated Drivers Really Sober? | Sobering Up<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A recent study conducted by researchers at the University of Florida (UF) shows that \u201cdesignated drivers\u201d are generally chosen by selecting the \u201cleast\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/2013\/06\/are-designated-drivers-really-sober\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Are Designated Drivers Really Sober? | Sobering Up\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A recent study conducted by researchers at the University of Florida (UF) shows that \u201cdesignated drivers\u201d are generally chosen by selecting the \u201cleast\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/2013\/06\/are-designated-drivers-really-sober\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sobering Up\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SCRAMx\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-06-11T20:41:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-08-26T18:03:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/designated-driver.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1170\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"700\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sobering Up Administrator\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@scramsystems\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@scramsystems\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sobering Up Administrator\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/2013\/06\/are-designated-drivers-really-sober\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/2013\/06\/are-designated-drivers-really-sober\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Sobering Up Administrator\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d81eb856e7b30e26591614b66cb58512\"},\"headline\":\"Are Designated Drivers Really&#160;Sober?\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-06-11T20:41:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-08-26T18:03:57+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/2013\/06\/are-designated-drivers-really-sober\/\"},\"wordCount\":368,\"commentCount\":5,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"designated drivers\",\"drunk driving\",\"dui\",\"feature\",\"Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs\",\"National Transportation Safety Board\",\"NTSB\",\"University of Florida\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Drunk &amp; Impaired Driving\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/2013\/06\/are-designated-drivers-really-sober\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/2013\/06\/are-designated-drivers-really-sober\/\",\"name\":\"Are Designated Drivers Really Sober? | Sobering Up\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-06-11T20:41:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-08-26T18:03:57+00:00\",\"description\":\"A recent study conducted by researchers at the University of Florida (UF) shows that \u201cdesignated drivers\u201d are generally chosen by selecting the \u201cleast\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/2013\/06\/are-designated-drivers-really-sober\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/2013\/06\/are-designated-drivers-really-sober\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/2013\/06\/are-designated-drivers-really-sober\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Are Designated Drivers Really&#160;Sober?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/\",\"name\":\"Sobering Up\",\"description\":\"Covering drunk driving, alcohol addiction, and criminal justice.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/#organization\",\"name\":\"SCRAM Systems\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sobering-up-logo-retina.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sobering-up-logo-retina.png\",\"width\":1100,\"height\":290,\"caption\":\"SCRAM Systems\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SCRAMx\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/scramsystems\",\"http:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/alcohol-monitoring-systems\",\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/scramsystems\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d81eb856e7b30e26591614b66cb58512\",\"name\":\"Sobering Up Administrator\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/su-admin-logo-96x96.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/su-admin-logo-96x96.jpg\",\"caption\":\"Sobering Up Administrator\"},\"description\":\"Sobering Up: A blog about drunk driving, alcohol addiction, and criminal justice, is anything but a corporate blog. Sobering Up is an opportunity for anyone interested or involved in the issues of drunk driving, alcohol-fueled crime, alcohol dependence and addiction, and the justice system to participate in the conversation.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/author\/sp-admin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Are Designated Drivers Really Sober? | Sobering Up","description":"A recent study conducted by researchers at the University of Florida (UF) shows that \u201cdesignated drivers\u201d are generally chosen by selecting the \u201cleast","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/2013\/06\/are-designated-drivers-really-sober\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Are Designated Drivers Really Sober? | Sobering Up","og_description":"A recent study conducted by researchers at the University of Florida (UF) shows that \u201cdesignated drivers\u201d are generally chosen by selecting the \u201cleast","og_url":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/2013\/06\/are-designated-drivers-really-sober\/","og_site_name":"Sobering Up","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SCRAMx","article_published_time":"2013-06-11T20:41:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-08-26T18:03:57+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1170,"height":700,"url":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/designated-driver.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Sobering Up Administrator","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@scramsystems","twitter_site":"@scramsystems","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Sobering Up Administrator","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/2013\/06\/are-designated-drivers-really-sober\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/2013\/06\/are-designated-drivers-really-sober\/"},"author":{"name":"Sobering Up Administrator","@id":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d81eb856e7b30e26591614b66cb58512"},"headline":"Are Designated Drivers Really&#160;Sober?","datePublished":"2013-06-11T20:41:00+00:00","dateModified":"2021-08-26T18:03:57+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/2013\/06\/are-designated-drivers-really-sober\/"},"wordCount":368,"commentCount":5,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/#organization"},"keywords":["designated drivers","drunk driving","dui","feature","Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs","National Transportation Safety Board","NTSB","University of Florida"],"articleSection":["Drunk &amp; Impaired Driving"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/2013\/06\/are-designated-drivers-really-sober\/","url":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/2013\/06\/are-designated-drivers-really-sober\/","name":"Are Designated Drivers Really Sober? | Sobering Up","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-06-11T20:41:00+00:00","dateModified":"2021-08-26T18:03:57+00:00","description":"A recent study conducted by researchers at the University of Florida (UF) shows that \u201cdesignated drivers\u201d are generally chosen by selecting the \u201cleast","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/2013\/06\/are-designated-drivers-really-sober\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/2013\/06\/are-designated-drivers-really-sober\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/2013\/06\/are-designated-drivers-really-sober\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Are Designated Drivers Really&#160;Sober?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/","name":"Sobering Up","description":"Covering drunk driving, alcohol addiction, and criminal justice.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"SCRAM Systems","url":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sobering-up-logo-retina.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sobering-up-logo-retina.png","width":1100,"height":290,"caption":"SCRAM Systems"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/SCRAMx","https:\/\/x.com\/scramsystems","http:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/alcohol-monitoring-systems","http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/scramsystems"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/d81eb856e7b30e26591614b66cb58512","name":"Sobering Up Administrator","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/su-admin-logo-96x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/su-admin-logo-96x96.jpg","caption":"Sobering Up Administrator"},"description":"Sobering Up: A blog about drunk driving, alcohol addiction, and criminal justice, is anything but a corporate blog. Sobering Up is an opportunity for anyone interested or involved in the issues of drunk driving, alcohol-fueled crime, alcohol dependence and addiction, and the justice system to participate in the conversation.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/author\/sp-admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2541\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.scramsystems.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}