Effectiveness
Studies that have tracked students before and after the Every 15 Minutes program have shown that the program may have a favorable short-term effect on students' stated attitudes but no effect on actual behavior. This has led to charges that the Every 15 Minutes program is similar to the controversial DARE anti-drug program in that it produces the appearance of addressing the problem but does not produce the desired change in behavior.
Questions have also been raised about the basic premise of the program, that one person dies every 15 minutes in an alcohol-related accident. The NHTSA reports that in 1995, the first year the program was presented, the rate was actually one death every 30.4 minutes in the US. This was using the NHTSA's very broad definition of "alcohol-related" wherein the accident was defined as "alcohol-related" if any person involved had a blood alcohol level of 0.01% or higher. The nationally recognized DUI level of presumption in the United States is 0.08%. The rate of alcohol-related fatalities has gradually declined and at the end of 2007 was one death every 40.4 minutes. The rate of alcohol-related fatalities at the end of 2008 was one death every 45 minutes.
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