Reducing Alcohol-Impaired Driving: Intervention Training Programs for Servers of Alcoholic Beverages

Task Force Finding*

Server intervention training programs provide education and training to servers of alcoholic beverages with the goal of altering their serving practices to prevent patron intoxication and alcohol-impaired driving. These practices can include offering food with drinks, delaying service to rapid drinkers, refusing service to intoxicated patrons, and discouraging intoxicated patrons from driving.

Server intervention training programs are recommended on the basis of evidence that high-quality face-to-face training, when accompanied by strong management support, is effective in reducing the level of intoxication among patrons. The evidence on which this recommendation is based comes primarily from small-scale studies in which the participants may have been unusually motivated and the researchers had a high degree of control over the implementation of the server training. Although these findings are promising, they may not apply to larger, community-wide server training programs for which evidence is insufficient. No qualifying economic information was identified for either type of program.

*From the following publication:

Task Force on Community Preventive Services. Recommendations to reduce injuries to motor vehicle occupants: increasing child safety seat use, increasing safety belt use, and reducing alcohol-impaired driving. [PDF - 2.30MB] Am J Prev Med 2001;21(4S):16–22.