Drinking drivers and their traffic records: I. The effects of a countermeasures program in reducing the recidivism of drunk driving II. A study of drivers involved in fatal accidents

This report describes two studies of comparing the driving behavior of drinking drivers with that of non-drinking drivers. Study I tested the efficacy of an intensive countermeasure treatment program designed to reduce the recidivism of drunk driving. The results indicated that overall the treatments were effective in the sense that those drunk drivers who received some treatment other than a court sentence had fewer post treatment alcohol related offenses and better overall driver quality when compared against appropriate control groups. The convicted drunk drivers had dramatically worse driving records both prior to and after the treatment programs when compared against a group who had never been convicted for drunk driving. The results also indicated that while the drunk drivers did not necessarily have more accidents than the non-drunk drivers, they did have more serious accidents and were more often at fault. Study II investigated two groups of drivers killed in accidents. One group has been drinking prior to the accident as indicated by the presence of blood alcohol content (BAC group); the other group had not been drinking (non-BAC group). Analysis of the driving records of these two groups prior to the accident indicated distinct differences between the two groups with the BAC group having much poorer driving records than the non-BAC group. Members of the BAC group also were more often at fault but, unlike the results of STudy I, were not involved in more serious accidents as measured by the number of injuries and deaths when compared with the non-BAC group.