Effectiveness
of
Anti-Drunken Driving Campaign:
Rajasthan Experiment Design
By
Nina Singh, IPS
Inspector General of Police, Rajasthan
Rajasthan:Geographical
Location
Background
Road Accidents killed more than 9,100
people and injured more than 31,000 in
Rajasthan (2010)
 Drunken driving one of the major
concerns
 Absence of segregated data about the
reasons of these accidents
 Enforcement by local police stations
 Low Priority Work

2
MIT Poverty Action Lab



Goal: Improve effectiveness of programs by providing
policy makers with clear scientific results that help
shape successful polices
Key Approach: Compare randomly chosen reformed
(“treatment”) areas with random un-reformed
(“control”) areas and examine difference in outcomes
Applies randomized trial approach to a variety of
projects in different fields




Health
Education
Governance Reform (such as Police Reforms)
Previous collaboration with Rajasthan Police: “Police
Performance and Public Perception” (2005-2008)
Interventions
Use of Breath-analyzers at check points
 Introduction of dedicated police teams
from Reserve Lines for enforcement
 Use of GPS enabled tracking system for
vehicles used by the dedicated teams
from the Reserve Police Line

4
Breath Analyzers

Device features


Provides rapid evidence of
blood-alcohol content
Automatically maintains a
record of the date, time,
and alcohol level of each
breath test
5
GPS Monitoring

Device features

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
Provides up-to-the-second
information about vehicle
location
Maintains a record of
vehicle’s travel history
Displays GPS information
via an online Google Maps
portal accessible to J-PAL
researchers, District
Police, and Jaipur City
Control Room
6
Objectives

Evaluate the impact of the three
interventions:

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

Breath analyzers on reducing road accidents
Dedicated police teams on enforcement
Technology aided supervision (GPS) on
execution of interventions
Collect objective evidence of success
9
Pilot Districts

Jaipur Rural contributes

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
7.9% of total deaths in Rajasthan
8.2% of total accidents in Rajasthan
Bhilwara contributes


3.9% of the total deaths in Rajasthan
4.0% of the total accidents in Rajasthan
Both the districts have long stretches of
National Highways
10
Methodology: RCTs

40 police stations in the 2 districts were
randomly divided into:
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
How?
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“Treatment” stations, each holding 2 check points
per week between 7 pm and 10 pm
“Control” stations, doing no special enforcement
Computerized random assignment
Designed so treatment and control groups are
similar in terms of accident rates, geographic
locations, and proximity to national highways
Why?


With randomization we expect no systematic
differences between treatment and control groups
Thus, control group can serve as an accurate
benchmark for measuring treatment group
outcomes
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Flow Diagram
Police Stations
Treatment Police
Stations
Surprise Check
Points
Police Station
Teams
Police Lines
Teams
Control Police
Stations
Fixed Check
Points
Police Station
Teams
Police Lines
Teams
Fixed/Surprise Check Points
Treatment police stations were further randomly
divided into:
 Fixed-Check Point stations: Fixed location
and days of checking.
 Surprise- Check Point stations: Different days
and locations of checking, thereby incorporating
the element of surprise.
Why?
Gives objective evidence of whether police should


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Concentrate enforcement in high-risk areas, or
Vary check point locations, to catch offenders offguard.
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Police Station/Police Line Teams
Two types of teams constituted in treatment
stations and randomly assigned the duties for
conducting the checkings:
 Local police station teams


Conducted 2 checkings per week in the police station
area
Dedicated teams from the district Police
Reserve Lines

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Conducted 6 checkings per week at 3 different police
station areas
Assigned dedicated police jeeps, equipped with GPS
devices
Why?
Determine whether the dedicated teams are better
while enforcing checkings compared to the police
station teams

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Checking Schedule
(30 days of enforcement)
Sources of Data
Breath analyzer memory
 GPS database
 Police logs kept at checking points
 Accident data from Police Stations
 Court records
 Independent surveys by J-PAL
Researchers and Surveyors


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Regarding the traffic flow, police checking
pattern and drunk drivers caught at the
checking points
Regarding the general traffic patterns in
absence of checking points
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Statistical Significance of Pilot
Heads
Probability that the reported
effect is not due to random
chance
Injuries
66%
Deaths
69%
Night Accidents
84%
Highway Accidents
66%
Serious Accidents
34%
Total Accidents
19%
Future Scale Up

Approximately 11 districts

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Maintain successful practices from pilot
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Representative sample, based on statistical indicators, accident
rates, geography, demographics
Proposed district list: Ajmer, Alwar, Banswara, Bharatpur,
Bhilwara, Bikaner, Bundi, Jaipur Rural, Jodhpur, Sikar, Udaipur
Continued use of dedicated Reserve Line teams
Both “Fixed” and “Surprise” checking strategies
Use of GPS devices for monitoring Lines teams
Comprehensive, objective data, including traffic analysis by JPAL
Improve upon pilot design
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More systematic use of breath analyzers
Longer intervention, in order to assess sustainability
Introduce variation in number of checkings per week
Days/Time of the checkings
Scope of improvement: 1

Infrequent use of breath analyzers


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14.8% of passing drivers were stopped by police
Only 1.2% received breath test
More frequent use would send a stronger message,
and perhaps help police catch more drunk drivers.
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Percent of passing drivers stopped by police
%
15
10
5
Percent of passing drivers given breath test
0
7:30 to 8:00
8:00 to 8:30
8:30 to 9:00
9:00 to 9:30
9:30 to 10:00
Scope of improvement: 2
Most drunken drivers caught on Tuesdays
and Thursdays: 23.8% more than on
Saturdays and Sundays.
 Does that mean more drinking on these
nights?

2
Avg. number of drunks caught
1.679
1.5
1.356
1
0.5
0
Tuesday/Thursday
Saturday/Sunday
Hopefully results from the larger
evaluation would help policy planners
to make appropriate policy
interventions to improve Road Safety.
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Thank You