UC Irvine medical students in the Emergency Medicine Interest Group have previously organized DUI-prevention events like this one at Santa Ana Valley High School to drive home the dangers of drinking.
Irvine, Calif., April 8, 2025 — Each year, . . Tragically, California accounted for nearly 11% of these deaths, with 1,479 people killed in alcohol-related crashes.
April is designated as Alcohol Awareness Month across the nation. This month emphasizes the importance of raising awareness and understanding about alcohol use and misuse. It also aims to highlight the negative consequences that alcohol can have, not only on individuals, but also on families and entire communities.
In collaboration with the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS), and using facets of the , is working together with community and professional collaborators to address alcohol-impaired driving to reduce and ultimately eliminate alcohol-involved crash deaths on public roadways.
One ongoing initiative between the California OTS and the B³ DrivSim Lab is the UC Traffic Safety Collaborative Program. This program employs a multilevel approach to raise awareness about the potential dangers of alcohol use and misuse among young drivers, including issues such as driving after drinking and riding with an impaired driver. The program includes focus groups with teenagers and their parents, aimed at effectively equipping both groups with current evidence-based resources and behavioral tools for prevention. Moreover, the program is developing a new multi-UC campus traffic safety collaborative among UC Irvine, UC Berkeley and UC San Diego that will advance prevention activities, programs and science in a meaningful way for road safety in California.
“Our collective work in traffic safety is truly never done. Every day there are more and more new users of our roadways and safety knowledge needs to be front and center and foundational for all users to fully benefit from our California transportation systems,” said Dr. Federico Vaca, professor and executive vice chair of emergency medicine at UC Irvine's School of Medicine, who is the founding director of the B³ DrivSim Lab.
Funding for this program was provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
About the UC Irvine School of Medicine
Each year, the UC Irvine School of Medicine educates more than 500 medical students and nearly 150 PhD and MS students. More than 750 residents and fellows are trained at the UCI Medical Center and affiliated institutions. The School of Medicine offers multiple MD, PhD and MS degrees, and students are encouraged to pursue an expansive range of interests and options. The UC Irvine School of Medicine is accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Accreditation and ranks among the top 50 nationwide for research. For more information, visit
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