Random Sobriety Test

As we can see from our daily news, drunk driving has become one of the most common courses of traffic accidents. To reduce the rate of drunk driving, the police adopted random sobriety test , also called random breath test to prevent drivers from drunk driving. Though the random sobriety test has been a controversy issue in the society, it is now a efficient way of reducing drunk driving.

When there is no one detecting you, you are usually more possible to not behave appropriately. However, if you know that you are being detected, you will usually have a stronger feeling of what is right and what is wrong. According to a research done by Mothers Against Drunk Driving(MADD),"RBT ( Random Breath Test)deters impaired driving by increasing the perceived chance of detection. For example, in New South Wales, 90% of drivers surveyed thought they might be breath tested."[1] As drivers perceived a bigger chance of detection, they will definitely hide their inappropriate behavior, and thus there will be less drunk driving.

An important why people would behave inappropriately is that they think they can get away with it without punishment. The law of effect in psychology indicates that people learn from the consequence of their behaviors. If one unethical behavior is not punished, it's quiet probable that the same behavior would happen again. According to MADD,"Millions of Canadians continue to drink and drive because they can do so with little fear of being stopped, let alone charged and convicted. Recent survey results and charge and conviction data indicate you could drive drunk once a week for more than 3 years before ever being charged with an impaired driving offence, and for over 6 years before ever being convicted. Other survey data would put the figures closer to 6 and a half years before a charge, and nearly 13 years before a conviction." (2)If it once happened that drunk driving wasn't charged or even discovered, the driver would think he wouldn't be punished for the next drunk driving. Random sobriety test just simply increases the possibilities that drunk driving would be punished, and thus less drivers would take the risk.

In terms of real world application, random sobriety test has been successful in countries that has implemented it. According to the research data,"The Australian RBT programs, which have been the most extensively studied, have resulted in dramatic reductions in impaired driving deaths and injuries. For example in Queensland, RBT was estimated to have reduc­ed total fatal crashes by 35% between 1988 and 1992, preventing 789 fatal crashes in that period. In Tasmania, RBT was credited with reducing all serious crashes by 24% in its first year. Similar results have been reported in a number of other countries. Most recently, Ireland's introduction of RBT in July 2006 was reported to have reduced total annual road fatalities by 19% from the preceding 12 months."