The present paper has four primary goals. First, those personality and driving-attitudinal characteristics found to be associated with increased driving risk with or without the influence of alcohol will be reviewed. Second, prior findings from our research concerning the empirical derivation of subtypes based upon such measures among samples of driving-while-intoxicated (DWI) arrestees and high-risk drivers (HRD) with multiple nonalcohol-related moving violations will be presented. The relationship of subtype membership to drinking behaviour at initial assessment and to driving records both at initial and 3-year assessments will be described. Third, findings concerning the increased likelihood of an initial DWI arrest among the bad driving group during the 3-year follow-up will be presented. Fourth, the implications of these findings for prevention, assessment, and treatment of drinking driving will be discussed. It is suggested that bad drivers may represent an appropriate target for secondary prevention strategies due to their increased risk for DWI arrest. The results indicate that drunk driving offenders do not constitute a homogeneous population. As such there is a need for a differential assessment and treatment approach. Such an approach would hopefully increase the efficacy of drunk-driving rehabilitative efforts. (A)
Abstract