Predicting Alcohol-Impaired Driving among Spanish Youth with the Theory of Reasoned Action

AbstractAlcohol consumption is a risk factor for motor vehicle accidents in young drivers. Crashes associated with alcohol consumption typically have greater severity. This study examines the prevalence of driving under the influence among Spanish youth and tests the theory of reasoned action as a model for predicting driving under the influence. Participants included 478 Spanish university students aged 17–26 years. Findings indicated that alcohol was the substance most associated with impaired driving, and was involved in more traffic crashes. Men engage in higher levels of alcohol and other drug use, and perceived less risk in drunk driving (p < .01). The study confirms that alcohol use and driving under the influence of alcohol are highly prevalent in Spanish young people, and some gender differences exist in these behaviors (p < .01). Furthermore, the study confirms the validity of theory of reasoned action as a predictive model of driving under the influence of alcohol among youth in Spain (p < .001) and can help in the design of prevention programs.

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Discriminant Profile of Young Adulthood Driving Behavior among Brazilian Drivers

The Spanish Journal of Psychology ◽

10.1017/sjp.2013.10 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 16 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Renata Maria Dotta-Panichi ◽

Adriana Wagner ◽

Jorge Castellá Sarriera

Keyword(s):

Young Adults ◽

Alcohol Consumption ◽

Sensation Seeking ◽

Motor Vehicle ◽

Driving Behavior ◽

Education Level ◽

Driving Under The Influence ◽

Vehicle Accidents ◽

Seeking Behavior ◽

Traffic Tickets

AbstractThe aim of this article was to describe the driving behavior profile of drivers aged 18 to 25 years old. Four hundred young adults were interviewed, 320 (80%) of them male and 80 (20%) female. Cluster analysis identified a group characterized by sensation-seeking behavior (Cluster 1), a group that did not show any risky driving behavior (Cluster 2), and a group engaged in transgressive behavior and driving under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs (Cluster 3). Discriminant analysis classified successfully and correctly 81.3% of the young adults into their original profiles. Function 1 distinguished cluster 1 from clusters 2 and 3, on the basis of the following factors: higher frequency of alcohol consumption, intrusive behavior, and motorcycle riding, as well as younger age, more aggressive behavior, and lower education level. Function 2 distinguished cluster 3 from cluster 1 and 2, especially as to higher amounts of alcohol consumption, higher frequency of marijuana use and delinquent behavior, larger number of traffic tickets and motor vehicle accidents, higher paternal education level, which were the variables with discriminant values above .20. Characteristics of vulnerability were identified, especially those related to alcohol consumption, drug use, and externalizing issues.

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Driving Under the Influence, Public Policy, and Pharmacy Practice

Journal of Pharmacy Practice ◽

10.1177/0897190014549839 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 28 (1) ◽

pp. 119-123 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

Nicholas Sigona ◽

Karl G. Williams

Keyword(s):

Motor Vehicle ◽

Pharmacy Practice ◽

The Body ◽

Driving Under The Influence ◽

Mood Stabilizers ◽

Legal Responsibility ◽

Impaired Driving ◽

Vehicle Accidents ◽

Driving Impairment ◽

Drug Impairment

Motor vehicle accidents due to prescription drug impairment have increased in the past decade. Typically, impairment is associated with medications causing excessive drowsiness, such as opioids or benzodiazepines, but the scope of driving under the influence (DUI)-drug charges is reaching into medications that are not typically considered impairing, such as antipsychotics, antiepileptics, and mood stabilizers. Data associating medication use with driving impairment are growing, especially with agents not typically thought of as impairing. Forty-three states currently train drug recognition experts who employ a 12-step evaluation to detect the presence of drug impairment. Seventeen states have instituted “per se” laws, which make it illegal to drive with the presence of drugs or metabolites in the body. Pharmacists should recognize an ethical, professional, and perhaps legal responsibility to inform patients of the risk of impaired driving with prescription agents. Pharmacists should reconsider how they are counseling patients on medication impairment and lower their threshold for warning a patient of potential impairment, expanding to agents typically not thought of as impairing. Pharmacists are in a position to ensure that patients fully understand the risk of impaired driving and the potential for DUI prosecution.

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Cannabis and Driving

Frontiers in Psychiatry ◽

10.3389/fpsyt.2021.689444 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 ◽

Author(s):

Godfrey D. Pearlson ◽

Michael C. Stevens ◽

Deepak Cyril D'Souza

Keyword(s):

Motor Vehicle ◽

Current Knowledge ◽

Driving Under The Influence ◽

Public Health Issue ◽

Blood Levels ◽

Research Gaps ◽

Vehicle Accidents ◽

Alcohol Impaired Driving ◽

Medicinal Cannabis ◽

Time Courses

As more states in the U.S legalize recreational and medicinal cannabis, rates of driving under the influence of this drug are increasing significantly. Aspects of this emerging public health issue potentially pit science against public policy. The authors believe that the legal cart is currently significantly ahead of the scientific horse. Issues such as detection procedures for cannabis-impaired drivers, and use of blood THC levels to gauge impairment, should rely heavily on current scientific knowledge. However, there are many, often unacknowledged research gaps in these and related areas, that need to be addressed in order provide a more coherent basis for public policies. This review focuses especially on those areas. In this article we review in a focused manner, current information linking cannabis to motor vehicle accidents and examine patterns of cannabis-impairment of driving related behaviors, their time courses, relationship to cannabis dose and THC blood levels, and compare cannabis and alcohol-impaired driving patterns directly. This review also delves into questions of alcohol-cannabis combinations and addresses the basis for of per-se limits in cannabis driving convictions. Finally, we distinguish between areas where research has provided clear answers to the above questions, areas that remain unclear, and make recommendations to fill gaps in current knowledge.

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L’alcool au volant, c’est criminel depuis 1921 !

Criminologie ◽

10.7202/017271ar ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 22 (1) ◽

pp. 9-26

Author(s):

Pierre Landreville ◽

Chantal Lavergne

Keyword(s):

Statistical Data ◽

Reliability And Validity ◽

Drunk Driving ◽

Criminal Code ◽

Driving Under The Influence ◽

Impaired Driving ◽

Canadian Criminal Code ◽

The Law

Bill C-51 passed by the Canadian Parliament in 1985 and the publicity surrounding this legislation led many people to believe that a new crime regarding impaired driving had been created. This Bill, however, was to simply increase the penalty for drunk driving in the case of a first conviction. In fact, the penal solution to the “problem” of drunk driving is not new; in 1921 the offence of impaired driving was first introduced into the Code. This article examines the evolution of the prohibition of driving under the influence of alcohol in the Canadian Criminal Code and the enforcement of this law in Canada, in Quebec and in Ontario from 1921 to 1973. The first part presents the evolution of legislation concerning impaired driving. It goes through six important phases and covers the period from 1921 to 1973. The second part presents the statistical data used in our study. We also consider the reliability and validity of the data used. In the last part, we analyze the implementation of the law on infractions relating to drunk driving in a state of drunkeness indictable offence and summary conviction offence driving under the influence of alcohol or a drug (indictable offence and summary conviction offence), and finally, refusal to furnish a sample of breath (summary conviction offence). In conclusion, we present several recommendations based on the results of our analysis.

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Cultural Differences in Tweeting about Drinking Across the US

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health ◽

10.3390/ijerph17041125 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 17 (4) ◽

pp. 1125 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Salvatore Giorgi ◽

David B. Yaden ◽

Johannes C. Eichstaedt ◽

Robert D. Ashford ◽

Anneke E.K. Buffone ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Alcohol Consumption ◽

Alcohol Use ◽

Drunk Driving ◽

Driving Under The Influence ◽

Behavioral Risk ◽

Excessive Alcohol Consumption ◽

Linguistic Markers ◽

Community Project ◽

The Us ◽

Excessive Alcohol

Excessive alcohol use in the US contributes to over 88,000 deaths per year and costs over $250 billion annually. While previous studies have shown that excessive alcohol use can be detected from general patterns of social media engagement, we characterized how drinking-specific language varies across regions and cultures in the US. From a database of 38 billion public tweets, we selected those mentioning “drunk”, found the words and phrases distinctive of drinking posts, and then clustered these into topics and sets of semantically related words. We identified geolocated “drunk” tweets and correlated their language with the prevalence of self-reported excessive alcohol consumption (Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System; BRFSS). We then identified linguistic markers associated with excessive drinking in different regions and cultural communities as identified by the American Community Project. “Drunk” tweet frequency (of the 3.3 million geolocated “drunk” tweets) correlated with excessive alcohol consumption at both the county and state levels (r = 0.26 and 0.45, respectively, p < 0.01). Topic analyses revealed that excessive alcohol consumption was most correlated with references to drinking with friends (r = 0.20), family (r = 0.15), and driving under the influence (r = 0.14). Using the American Community Project classification, we found a number of cultural markers of drinking: religious communities had a high frequency of anti-drunk driving tweets, Hispanic centers discussed family members drinking, and college towns discussed sexual behavior. This study shows that Twitter can be used to explore the specific sociocultural contexts in which excessive alcohol use occurs within particular regions and communities. These findings can inform more targeted public health messaging and help to better understand cultural determinants of substance abuse.

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Adjusting the Rear View Mirror: An Examination of Youth Driving Culture

Youth & Society ◽

10.1177/0044118x10376605 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 43 (2) ◽

pp. 774-795 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Kate C. Tilleczek

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Young People ◽

Motor Vehicle ◽

Historical Review ◽

Ethnographic Study ◽

Sociological Study ◽

Vehicle Accidents ◽

Young Drivers ◽

Close Observation ◽

Practical Implications

The majority of deaths for contemporary young people are related to injuries sustained in motor vehicle accidents. Most prevention efforts targeted at addressing the issue are less than effective and do not address youth driving as a culture. This article presents findings from an ethnographic study that attempts to understand the ways in which youth driving culture is organized in regulatory texts and practices. A brief historical review of youth studies provides a context for how we have come to frame the problem through public health and psychology. The study is based on close observation of youth driving lessons, examination of curricular and policy documents, and public health literatures. Results show that prevention efforts are most often attempted by assigning individual blame to risky young people and provide paradoxical messages that simultaneously pathologize and normalize youth and driving. Theoretical and practical implications for young drivers and the sociological study of youth are discussed.

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Everything Is Bigger in Texas: Alcohol Impaired Driving in Houston (2014–2018)

Journal of Analytical Toxicology ◽

10.1093/jat/bkaa128 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Corissa Rodgers ◽

Melissa Lloyd ◽

Peter Stout ◽

Dayong Lee

Keyword(s):

Public Safety ◽

Blood Alcohol Concentration ◽

Alcohol Concentration ◽

Driving Under The Influence ◽

Science Center ◽

Impaired Driving ◽

Blood Samples ◽

Drug Concentrations ◽

Populations At Risk ◽

Alcohol Impaired Driving

Abstract Driving while intoxicated (DWI) or driving under the influence of drugs (DUID) poses a continued public safety risk in Texas, which has one of the highest alcohol impaired traffic fatality rates. This study aimed to identify alcohol and drug use trends seen in DWI/DUID cases in the city of Houston from 2014 to 2018 to better understand the populations at risk. Blood samples submitted to the Houston Forensic Science Center (HFSC) were evaluated for blood alcohol concentration (BAC), drug concentrations and demographics. During the 5-year period, 12,682 Houston driver blood samples had a mean (median) BAC of 0.151 g/dL (0.167 g/dL) and age of 36.3 (34) years. Fifty percent of samples were white males. Seventy-five percent of samples were individuals aged 21 to 44 years. Between 2014 and 2018, the number of cases submitted nearly doubled, from approximately 2,000 cases per year to over 3,700. In 2014, 23% of cases submitted required further analysis per HFSC testing policy (drug screen and confirmation for DWI/DUID cases when BAC < 0.100 g/dL), which rose to 27% by 2018. Of those, 36% were polydrug cases, requiring two or more confirmation tests. Cannabinoids was the most common drug class detected (34% of cases analyzed for drugs), followed by benzodiazepines (25%), phencyclidine (20%), cocaine/metabolites (15%) and opioids (12%). Phencyclidine rose from the fifth-most commonly detected drug in 2014 to the second-most drug in 2018. Only 3% of all cases (n = 408) were negative for both alcohol and drugs. Communication between law enforcement and laboratory management is recommended to address growing caseload more effectively. The study limitations (e.g., limited scope of analysis) suggest the present data underestimated the full extent of impaired driving in Houston, indicating even more urgent needs for increasing resources and efforts to reduce this serious threat to public safety.

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