A three-pronged approach to drink-driving study

Abstract

Driving under the influence of alcohol (DUIA) is well recognized as one of the key human factors that increase the risks of traffic accidents and associated injuries and fatalities. These risks increase rapidly with the alcohol concentration in human body. Unfortunately, drink-driving not only increases the accident and injury risks of drivers, but also increases the risks to innocent road users. Despite the decrease in the number of alcohol-related accidents over the past decade, few comprehensive studies have investigated the relationship between the drivers’ alcohol consumption, the actual impairment in driving performance due to alcohol, and the resulting accident and injury risks. Therefore, the development of an appropriate road safety policy framework would help to formulate appropriate measures and penalties for combating drink-driving, thus reducing the associated injuries and fatalities in the long term.

To better understand the relationship between drink-driving and traffic safety, this study attempts to evaluate the alcohol-impaired effect on traffic safety in a three-pronged approach: risk analysis, physiological performance, and attitudinal evaluation. For the crash risk analysis, impairment effects of alcohol on the severity of injuries and road crashes in Hong Kong were determined using the comprehensive random breath test (RBT) data. For the physiological performance, simulation study was conducted to develop a temporal profile of driver alcohol concentration and to determine the relationship between driver alcohol concentration and the actual alcohol-impaired driving performance for Chinese populations. Finally, for the attitudinal evaluation, a perception survey was used to evaluate the effectiveness of legislation on drivers’ intention to reduce drink-driving.

Findings of the three-pronged analysis were then integrated to provide a useful tool for formulating effective legislation and enforcement measures to combat drink-driving, with respect to the driver’s perceptions, observed driving performance, and actual road safety levels in the long term.