This report examines an increasingly important segment of the drinking-driving problem - individuals who drive with high blood alcohol concentrations (BACs) and, in particular, those who do so frequently. These drivers account for a large portion of the alcohol-related crashes. Evidence is also growing that many of these individuals are alcohol dependent. If this is so, it has obvious policy and program relevance. The objectives of the report are: (a) to determine how significant the problem is - to quantify the magnitude of the problem by attempting to determine what portion of alcohol-related crashes as well as what portion of the road crash problem in general is attributable to individuals who drive with high BACs; (2) to describe what is known about such individuals - to describe the attributes and characteristics of high-BAC drivers; and (3) to identify what programs and policies seem best suited to deal with the high-BAC driver. This report includes original data analyses, supplemented by findings from other published research. The original analyses make use of data from the United States Fatal Accident Reporting System (FARS), primarily because this database contains both reliable information on the presence of alcohol (the dependent variable of principle concern in this study) found in persons involved in road crashes, and a large number of cases necessary for stable estimates when data for various subgroups (e.g., age by BAC) are examined. The original analyses are supplemented by data and findings from relevant reports that address various aspects of this problem - for example, do convicted impaired drivers with high BACs have drinking problems ? and to what extent are recidivists responsible for alcohol-related traffic crashes ? Such findings are used to verify or extend results obtained from the detailed data analyses. Finally, the implications of the findings for policy and program development are considered. (A)
Abstract