Alcohol-Impaired Driving

Publisher Summary This chapter reviews large-scale prevention approaches targeting driving under the influence (DUI) prevention. Driving-related skills include alertness, divided attention, vigilance, visual tracking, and quick reaction time to ever-changing information, and the ability to execute maneuvers based on these decisions. Drinking alcohol impairs a wide range of skills necessary for performing these tasks. Blood alcohol concentration (BAC), expressed as the percentage of alcohol in deciliters of blood, helps provide an indication of how much alcohol an individual has consumed in the past few hours. A positive BAC is present in 33–69% of fatally injured drivers and in 8–29% of nonfatally injured drivers. A BAC of 0.02 is enough to affect a driver's ability to divide attention. At a BAC of 0.05, a driver suffers impairment in eye movements; glare resistance, visual perception, reaction time, steering ability, information processing, and other aspects of psychomotor performance. DUI is a prevalent problem, and a number of strategies have been implemented that aim to decrease alcohol-impaired driving. Although the effects of some nonpolicy initiatives such as designated driver use are mixed, their relative effectiveness is enhanced when multiple interventions are combined. Mass media interventions, in particular, are reinforcing when combined with other interventions.