ALCOHOL AND HIGHWAY SAFETY: BEHAVIORAL AND MEDICAL ASPECTS

DRIVERS INVOLVED IN FATAL AND SERIOUS CRASHES WERE COMPARED WITH DRIVERS USING THE SAME ROADS AT SIMILAR TIMES, WITH DRUNKEN DRIVING ARRESTS, WITH OTHER SERIOUS TRAFFIC VIOLATIONS, AND WITH NO CRASHES OR CITATIONS FOR FIVE YEARS. VARIABLES STUDIED INCLUDED ALCOHOL USE, DRIVING PATTERNS, AND SOCIAL PROBLEMS. AMONG DRIVER FATALITIES, 54% HAD ALCOHOL IN THEIR BLOOD, COMPARED TO 14% OF ROADBLOCK DRIVERS AND 2% OF CLEAR RECORD DRIVERS. ALMOST ALL DRUNKEN DRIVERS WERE MALE HEAVY DRINKERS WITH BAD DRIVING RECORDS. DISCRIMINANT FUNCTION ANALYSIS CLASSIFIED CORRECTLY 95% OF CLEAR RECORD DRIVERS AND 87% OF DRUNKEN DRIVERS USING FOUR VARIABLES: LIFETIME CITATIONS, OCCUPATIONAL LEVEL, BEER FREQUENCY, AND LIQUOR QUANTITY. INDUCED INTOXICATION EXPERIMENTS STUDIED ALCOHOL EFFECTS ON DRIVING RELATED BEHAVIOR. /HSL/

• Supplemental Notes:
  • FINAL REPORT
• Corporate Authors:

  University of Vermont, Burlington

  169 Home Avenue
  Burlington, VT  United States  05401
• Authors:
  • Perrine, M W
  • Waller, J A
  • Harris, L S
• Publication Date: 1971

Media Info

• Features: References;
• Pagination: 310 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Blood alcohol levels; Crashes; Drivers; Fatalities; Human characteristics; Problem drivers; Social factors
• Uncontrolled Terms: Driver characteristics
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors; Society;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00223817
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: Highway Safety Literature
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Aug 3 1972 12:00AM