This paper reviews the literature examining the relationship between alcoholic addiction and drinking drivers and briefly considers the implications for policy on training and rehabilitation programs.The review is presented in 4 sections: a) definitions of alcoholism, excessive drinking, problem drinking; varying interpretations of tests for alcoholism and problem drinking - e.g. Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC), psychological, diagnostic and biochemical tests; b) the literature on drinking-driving offenders; the author concludes that all studies suggest that the population of drinking-driving offenders is not a subset of the alcoholic population, though there seems to be an overlap between the two; c) the literature on collision involved drivers; the author concludes that all the studies suggest that this population is not a subset of the alcoholic population, although a substantial proportion of the population seems to be alcoholic or heavy drinkers; and d) the alcoholic population. The author concludes in summary that high risk drivers are individuals who are having problems with both drinking and driving. Some are alcoholic, some are not. The more driving while intoxicated (DWI) convictions any offender has, the more likely to be alcoholic he is, but the majority of first offenders do not seem to be suffering from alcohol dependence syndrome or alcoholism. The author concludes from the literature that between 25% and 50% of the high risk drinking drivers are problem drinkers. She suggests that a holistic approach is required in the assessment of the drinking driver in which the degree of severity of alcohol problems, the driving behaviours and psychosocial characteristics are thoroughly analyzed.
Samenvatting