Showing papers on "Driving under the influence published in 1989"

Fatal Crash Involvement and Laws against Alcohol-Impaired Driving

Abstract: It is estimated that in 1985 about 1,560 fewer drivers were involved in fatal crashes because of three types of drinking-driving laws. The laws studied were per se laws that define driving under the influence using blood alcohol concentration (BAC) thresholds; laws that provide for administrative license suspension or revocation prior to conviction for driving under the influence (often referred to as “administrative per se” laws); and laws that mandate jail or community service for first convictions of driving under the influence. It is estimated that if all 48 of the contiguous states adopted laws similar to those studied here, and if these new laws had effects comparable to those reported here, another 2,600 fatal driver involvements could be prevented each year. During hours when typically at least half of all fatally injured drivers have a BAC over 0.10 percent, administrative suspension/revocation is estimated to reduce the involvement of drivers in fatal crashes by about 9 percent; during the same hours, first offense mandatory jail/community service laws are estimated to have reduced driver involvement by about 6 percent. The effect of per se laws was estimated to be a 6 percent reduction during hours when fatal crashes typically are less likely to involve alcohol. These results are based on analyses of drivers involved in fatal crashes in the 48 contiguous states of the United States during the years 1978 to 1985.

An investigation of factors related to intoxicated driving behaviors among youth

Abstract: This study assessed the prevalence of driving under the influence of alcohol and marijuana among a sample of 18 and 21 year olds and examined the across-time relationships between intoxicated driving and consumption, risk-taking/impulsive orientation, negative intrapersonal state, stress and use of alcohol and other drugs to cope with problems. Self-report data were collected from 556 men and women, ages 18 and 21, at two points in time. The data indicated that at least a minimum level of drinking and driving, as well as smoking marijuana and driving, is engaged in at least once for the majority of youth. Correlations between eight driving behaviors and consumption variables indicated that frequency of substance use was strongly related to frequency of driving while intoxicated (DWI). Regression analyses revealed that coping use of substances was the strongest predictor of driving under the influence. A path model examining the effect of stress, negative states and risk-taking orientations (T1) on driving under the influence as mediated through coping use (T2) was tested. Results showed that risk-taking orientation was the strongest predictor of DWI, both directly and indirectly (as mediated through coping use). Findings suggest that impaired driving may be part of a global syndrome of risk-taking behavior and is an activity engaged in most often by those who frequently use alcohol and other drugs to cope with problems.

Interactions among DUI offender characteristics and traditional intervention modalities: a long-term recidivism follow-up.

Abstract: Using long-term DUI (Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol) arrest recidivism data from a controlled study of DUI intervention effectiveness, interactions among DUI interventions, age, race, education, and alcohol severity were estimated using logit analysis. Data were collected in a 9-year follow-up study of the Mississippi DUI Probation Project. The effects of short-term interventions (alcohol education schools for low alcohol severity offenders and structured group interventions for high alcohol severity offenders) were specified by educational level. Short-term rehabilitation was modestly effective for those with less than 12 years of education, but less effective or detrimental for the more highly educated. The effects of probation were specified by age and education, being more effective for those under 30 years and 55 years or older than for the middle age group. Probation was most effective for well-educated older (55+) offenders. An analysis of the under 30 years group also suggested that probation was especially effective for young well-educated Minority offenders.

Alcohol and crime

Abstract: The authors discuss the social impact of alcohol abuse and the link between alcohol and crime. They suggest a number of research based proposals for reducing alcohol related criminal behaviour. These relate to the legal drinking age, random breath testing, education and availability of alcohol.

Driving Under The Influence: The Impact Of Legislative Reform On The Role Of Legal And Extralegal Variables In Court Sentencing Practices

Abstract: This paper analyzes the contribution of legal and extralegal factors in the sentencing of misdemeanor DUI defendants, with particular emphasis on the impact of legislative reform on the relative importance of these factors in the sentencing decision. Legal variables consistently dominate the decision to impose a jail term and the length of that term when imposed, both before and after reform. Among the extralegal variables only type of attorney representation is significantly related to sentencing outcomes, and then only for first offenders after implementation of the new law. Because the law and court policy permit these defendants a choice of sentence, this finding is interpreted as a reflection of class-based choices by criminal defendants rather than of court discrimination. Unlike other analyses of DUI sentencing, we found no judicial resistance to implementation of the legislative reform.

Drinking and driving: no longer "only for men". women, alcohol, drugs and traffic - proceedings of the international workshop, stockholm, sweden, 29-30 september, 1988

Abstract: This article considers Dutch research data on women driving under the influence of alcohol during the period 1970-87. For the period as a whole women drove under the influence of alcohol less frequently than men. Until 1975-77 the percentage of women driving under the influence of alcohol declined, but since then it has risen again. This development was accompanied by a strong rise in general alcohol consumption until 1980, followed by a gradual decline in subsequent years. The number of women driving during weekend nights rose strongly over the entire period. As a result of this the proportion of women among all intoxicated drivers has risen since 1975-77. The current difference between the percentages of men and women who drive under the influence of alcohol can only be partially explained by differences in alcohol consumption. In order to explain the differences noted between men and women several hypotheses have been formulated. (Author/TRRL)

Differential Substance Use Patterns in a University Community.

Abstract: This study examined attitudes and practices in two risk-taking areas of behavior while under the influence of alcohol--driving and sexuality--within important campus peer subcultures defined by class level and residency associations Data were drawn from a research project to explore these and other related variables in a major northeastern University Subjects (N=240), randomly selected from each of seven campus subpopulations (the four undergraduate levels, graduate students, faculty, and staff) were mailed survey questionnaires that assessad: (1) potentially predisposing risk factors, such as demographics, alcohol knowledge, peer usage and pressure, alcohol and drug availability, motivations for drinking, mood, and place of residence; (2) level of respondent's alcohol use; (3) type and frequency of respondent's drug use; and (4) high risk behavior associated with substance use, including driving under the influence and unprotected sexual intercourse Results, summarized and tabulated, sugaest that alcohol and drug use, anci associated risk-taking behaviors, vary considerably with both age and social environment, suggestiag the influence of campus peer subcultures Thus it might be productive to concentrate prevention and intervention efforts on identified high-risk peer subcultures, involving peer leaders and peer counseling programs in efforts to modify peer group norms (Nine references, 5 tables and 12 figures are included) (TE) ******************k**************************************************** * Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made * from the original document *

Personality Dynamics of Driving Under the Influence of Alchohol

Abstract: Two hundred persons arrested for DUI, 30 social drinkers, 30 clinically depressed patients, 30 incarcerated criminals, and 30 alcoholics completed the Hogan Personality Inventory (HPI). A cluster analysis of HPI scores for the DUI group revealed five personality types similar to those identified by Donovan &Marlatt (1982): Impulsive Extraverts, Normals, Passive Depressives, Hostile Aggressives, and Serious Conventionals. Impulsive Extraverts and Normals had HPI profiles similar to the social drinkers, Passive Depressives resembled the depressed patients, and Hostile Aggressives resembled the criminals.

Not a tragedy if teens get the last act right

Abstract: The article describes how an innovative program, Alcohol, Drugs, Driving and You (ADDY), is using role-playing to teach the risks of drinking and driving. A scenario is described which gives students an opportunity to practice how they would avoid dangerous and illegal situations in their own lives before they are actually confronted with them. ADDY goes beyond the traditional approach of giving information on alcohol and drugs by teaching steps in decision-making. The 5-part curriculum covers legal and financial consequences of driving under the influence of alcohol and drugs. Supplementing the classroom materials are posters, a student assembly guide, a media/activity kit for promoting safe driving in the community, and a parent-teen discussion guide. ADDY has grown into a multi-faceted program that carries a positive message into the community. It is noted that ADDY works best when there is regular feedback from teachers, parents and students. A parent-teen discussion guide was developed when teachers recognized the critical role parents can play in helping to shape and reinforce the attitudes towards drinking and driving.

Female drinking drivers in sweden. women, alcohol, drugs and traffic - proceedings of the international workshop, stockholm, sweden, 29-30 september, 1988

Abstract: In 1967 there were 19240 individuals suspected of driving under the influence of alcohol (dwi) in Sweden and only 289 or 1.5% were women. The number of blood samples submitted for alcohol analysis in 1986 was 21153 and 6.2% of these were from female drivers. This represents a considerable increase in the proportion of women compared with the total rise in number of blood samples between 1967 and 1986. We investigated male (n = 5570) and female (n = 654) drinking drivers apprehended in Sweden during the first half of 1986. The information recorded on the police reports such as time of day, day of week, age of suspect, kind of traffic incident (routine control, traffic accident or moving traffic offence) and part of the country were evaluated in relation to the concentration of alcohol in the blood (BAC). Most dwi offenders, both men and women, were apprehended on Friday and Saturday nights between 20.00 and 04.00. The median age of male and female drinking drivers was about the same 20-25 y but the age distribution for men was much more skew (+). The average venous BAC for men and women was nearly the same at 1.6 mg/g but the frequency distributions were different. Female drinking drivers were involved in traffic accidents more often than their male counterparts; 29% compared with 20%. At BAC above 1.5 mg/g, the proportion of men and women judged by a physician as being under the influence of alcohol was about the same (90%) but below 0.5 mg/g, 50% of men and 63% of women were considered influenced by alcohol and therefore unfit to drive. These results may have a bearing on the development of tolerance to alcohol in male and female dwi offenders and prevalence for alcoholism. (Author/TRRL)

Motor Vehicle Fatalities and the Minimum Drinking Age

Abstract: To the Editor.— Decker et al 1 raise a good question: Do young people respond better to general or to youth-targeted measures aimed at reducing fatal accidents? However, the finding by Decker et al that nighttime (alcoholprobable) fatalities among persons aged 19 through 20 years did not decrease after Tennessee enacted stricter anti— driving under the influence of alcohol laws in 1982, but did fall after the drinking age was raised from 19 to 21 years in 1984, is not an adequate answer. The largest decrease in the rate of nighttime fatal crashes (NFCs) among persons aged 19 through 20 years in Tennessee occurred in 1985, 2 when more than half this age group could still drink legally under the "grandfather clause" (under which the 21 drinking age was phased in over 2 years). Persons aged 20 years had a particularly large decrease in the rate of NFCs in 1985,