The term was coined to refer to people who repeatedly drive while impaired and are resistant to changing their behavior despite previous sanctions, treatments, or education. The underlying premise is that many, if not most, of these people are problem drinkers.11 The term is not precisely defined, although two criteria commonly used to identify hard-core drinking drivers are prior alcohol-impaired driving convictions and very high BACs (0.15 percent or higher) at the time of arrest for alcohol-impaired driving. Hard-core drinking drivers have drawn extra attention in recent years as policymakers have tried to renew progress against alcohol-impaired driving. The concept of hard-to-change chronic heavy drinking drivers ignores many who account for a large portion of alcohol-impaired driving crashes. These include drivers who drink heavily on occasion and drivers who drink at more moderate levels that elevate crash risk. Some countermeasures aimed at the hard-core group have been effective in reducing recidivism, but attention and resources also need to be given to general deterrent initiatives (e.g. sobriety checkpoints, administrative license suspension).12
