Recorded Traffic Offenses of Graduates of Traffic Safety School,Cook County,Illinois

The retraining of drivers who have received their first traffic citation has been examined for effectiveness. Unlike most other driver-intervention programs that focus on problem drivers, this one focuses on all drivers the first time they violate a traffic law and are convicted. The measure used for assessment was subsequent violations of traffic laws. For the study of subsequent violations, potential students for a traffic safety school 4-h training course were divided into a control group and an experimental group. The former received a letter waiving them from having to attend because of “scheduling conflicts.” The latter attended the course. Examined were the number of traffic-law violations and the number of times drivers were stopped for a violation (because drivers may receive one or more traffic citations on a traffic stop), comparing both groups before and after the training. Also, survival analysis was applied to determine whether those receiving training were as likely to fail in the same period as the control group. Those who had the training received significantly fewer traffic citations after training up to the first 6 months. After that period, both groups received citations at approximately the same rate, although the gap between the experimental group and the control group continued to widen, even after 12 months. For traffic stops, the differences were not as pronounced, although the individuals in the control group continued to be stopped for violations at a higher rate than those in the experimental group. The survival analysis showed a strong difference for the first 90 days after training. As a result, the traffic safety school is going to experiment with a follow-up intervention at the 90-day period.