EFFECTS OF MODERATE BLOOD ALCOHOL LEVELS ON AUTOMOBILE PASSING BEHAVIOR

SIXTEEN CLINICALLY NORMAL INDIVIDUALS DROVE IN AN OPTICAL DRIVING SIMULATOR IN BOTH A NON-ALCOHOL AND AN ALCOHOL CONDITION. IN BOTH THE 0 MG% (.00%) AND THE 90 MG% (.09%) BLOOD ALCOHOL LEVEL CONDITIONS, EACH SUBJECT WAS GIVEN 60 TRIALS IN WHICH HE WAS REQUIRED TO MAKE AND EXECUTE A DECISION TO PASS OR TO CONTINUE FOLLOWING A LEAD CAR. TIMES AVAILABLE TO SAFELY COMPLETE A PASS AND VEHICLE SPEEDS WERE PRESENTED IN A RANDOM MANNER. DURING THE ALCOHOL CONDITION, SUBJECTS NOT ONLY ATTEMPTED AND COMPLETED SIGNIFICANTLY MORE PASSES BUT ALSO EXPERIENCED MORE ACCIDENTS. LATERAL CONTROL OF THE VEHICLE WAS SIGNIFICANTLY CHANGED, WITH INCREASED DEVIATION FROM THE CENTER TRACK BEING EXHIBITED WHEN SUBJECTS PERFORMED UNDER THE ALCOHOL CONDITIONS. MEAN DECISION-REACTION TIMES INCREASED UNDER ALCOHOL AS DID ERROR SCORES ON A TEST OF EYE-HAND COORDINATION. RESULTS OF THIS EXPERIMENT SUGGEST THAT THE EFFECTS OF MODERATE LEVELS OF BLOOD ALCOHOL MUST BE EXAMINED NOT ONLY AS THEY AFFECT PERCEPTUAL MOTOR SKILLS, BUT ALSO AS THEY MAY MORE SUBTLY AFFECT RISK-TAKING BEHAVIOR AND DECISION PROCESSES INVOLVED IN OPERATING A MOTOR VEHICLE. /AUTHOR/

• Corporate Authors:

  Government Printing Office

  Superintendent of Documents
  Washington, DC  United States  20402-9325
• Authors:
  • Light, W O
  • Keiper, C G
• Publication Date: 1971

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Decision making; Driver performance; Drivers; Driving simulators; Drunk driving; Passing; Personnel performance
• Old TRIS Terms: Lateral movement
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00223614
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: Icrl-rr-69.
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Oct 25 1971 12:00AM