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Alcohol in fatal accidents: National estimates — U.S.A.
Abstracts Highway
Safety
Alcohol and Caffeine Effects on Skills Related to Car Driving Ability. P. A. Howat, A. A.
Landauer, and L. J. Hamis, Proceedings of the Conference of the Australian Road Research Board, llth, 23-27 August, 1982, Vol. 11, Part 5: Safety, 1982, pp. 13-20. Alcohol and caffeine are widely used and it is therefore important to examine how the consumption of these two social drugs interact, how it affects driving ability and ultimately road safety. It has long been believed that caffeine counteracts the detrimental effects of alcohol intoxication but the experimental evidence is not clear. Some studies have reported that caffeine at time enhances the deleterious effects of alcohol on performance, while other studies have found that caffeine has no effect on the performance of the task. In a double-blind experimental investigation with 11 men tested both with (800 mg/kg) and without alcohol and with (300 mg) and without caffeine, it was found that alcohol did not impair performance on two psychomotor tasks (tracking with divided attention and choice reaction time), nor were there any significant interaction effects. On the other hand, questionnaire data showed that subjects felt impaired by alcohol intoxication and that caffeine reduced reported drowsiness. Alcohol and caffeine accounted for only little of the total response variance, and attention is drawn to the importance of using an appropriate statistical model to assess alcohol and caffeine effects on skilled performance.
Alcohol in Fatal Accidents: National Estimates-U.S.A. E. C. Cerrelli, National Cen-
ter for Statistics and Analysis, Mathematical Analysis Division, Washington, DC, Janus y 1983. NTIS No. PB83-188433. This technical report presents detailed statistics on the presence and level of alcohol in drivers and pedestrians involved in fatal
Winter 1984Nolume
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motor vehicle accidents. Data are taken from the 1980 file of the Fatal Accident Reporting System. The FARS file contains information on the driver, vehicle, and environment associated with each of the more than 45,000 fatal accidents which occurred during 1980. In general, the results of the study consist of the number and percent of drivers and pedestrians who fall into each of the six established BAC level classes. These classes cover the entire spectrum of BAC values which range from zero to greater than .20. Estimates are provided by sex and age groups of drivers and for each of the four distinct types of fatal accidents: Hit and Run, Pedestrian, Single-Vehicle, and Multi-Vehicle. Comparisons are shown between male and female drivers and between young male drivers and others. The report utilizes the data from 29 selected states and makes use of the police indication of alcohol presence in the driver before assigning BAC values to those drivers for whom test results were not known. The key findings include the large number of drivers and pedestrians found at the intoxicated level, the greater contribution of intoxicated pedestrians, the increase in the dimensions of the problem during nighttime hours, the insignificant differences found between young males and others, and the sizeable detrimental effect which high alcohol levels have on the survivability of the drivers involved.
A Behavioral Analysis of Incentive Prompts for Motivating Seat Belt Use. E. S. Geller, L.
Paterson, and E. Talbott, Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1982, X(3), 402-415. The seat belt usage of drivers was observed at the entrance to two campus parking lots during morning arrival times. After 11 days of baseline, fliers which prompted seat belt wearing were handed to drivers of incoming vehicles. At one parking lot all fliers offered a chance to win a prize (noncontingent rewards), while at the second lot only those fliers given to seat belt wearers included a chance to win a prize (contingent rewards). After 24 consecutive observation days, these 17K AI.2
Safety
Alcohol and Caffeine Effects on Skills Related to Car Driving Ability. P. A. Howat, A. A.
Landauer, and L. J. Hamis, Proceedings of the Conference of the Australian Road Research Board, llth, 23-27 August, 1982, Vol. 11, Part 5: Safety, 1982, pp. 13-20. Alcohol and caffeine are widely used and it is therefore important to examine how the consumption of these two social drugs interact, how it affects driving ability and ultimately road safety. It has long been believed that caffeine counteracts the detrimental effects of alcohol intoxication but the experimental evidence is not clear. Some studies have reported that caffeine at time enhances the deleterious effects of alcohol on performance, while other studies have found that caffeine has no effect on the performance of the task. In a double-blind experimental investigation with 11 men tested both with (800 mg/kg) and without alcohol and with (300 mg) and without caffeine, it was found that alcohol did not impair performance on two psychomotor tasks (tracking with divided attention and choice reaction time), nor were there any significant interaction effects. On the other hand, questionnaire data showed that subjects felt impaired by alcohol intoxication and that caffeine reduced reported drowsiness. Alcohol and caffeine accounted for only little of the total response variance, and attention is drawn to the importance of using an appropriate statistical model to assess alcohol and caffeine effects on skilled performance.
Alcohol in Fatal Accidents: National Estimates-U.S.A. E. C. Cerrelli, National Cen-
ter for Statistics and Analysis, Mathematical Analysis Division, Washington, DC, Janus y 1983. NTIS No. PB83-188433. This technical report presents detailed statistics on the presence and level of alcohol in drivers and pedestrians involved in fatal
Winter 1984Nolume
15INumber
4
motor vehicle accidents. Data are taken from the 1980 file of the Fatal Accident Reporting System. The FARS file contains information on the driver, vehicle, and environment associated with each of the more than 45,000 fatal accidents which occurred during 1980. In general, the results of the study consist of the number and percent of drivers and pedestrians who fall into each of the six established BAC level classes. These classes cover the entire spectrum of BAC values which range from zero to greater than .20. Estimates are provided by sex and age groups of drivers and for each of the four distinct types of fatal accidents: Hit and Run, Pedestrian, Single-Vehicle, and Multi-Vehicle. Comparisons are shown between male and female drivers and between young male drivers and others. The report utilizes the data from 29 selected states and makes use of the police indication of alcohol presence in the driver before assigning BAC values to those drivers for whom test results were not known. The key findings include the large number of drivers and pedestrians found at the intoxicated level, the greater contribution of intoxicated pedestrians, the increase in the dimensions of the problem during nighttime hours, the insignificant differences found between young males and others, and the sizeable detrimental effect which high alcohol levels have on the survivability of the drivers involved.
A Behavioral Analysis of Incentive Prompts for Motivating Seat Belt Use. E. S. Geller, L.
Paterson, and E. Talbott, Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1982, X(3), 402-415. The seat belt usage of drivers was observed at the entrance to two campus parking lots during morning arrival times. After 11 days of baseline, fliers which prompted seat belt wearing were handed to drivers of incoming vehicles. At one parking lot all fliers offered a chance to win a prize (noncontingent rewards), while at the second lot only those fliers given to seat belt wearers included a chance to win a prize (contingent rewards). After 24 consecutive observation days, these 17K AI.2