Roadside surveys between the hours of 2100 and 0300 h in Canada during 1981 obtained information on driver, vehicle and trip characteristics, together with drivers' blood alcohol concentration recorded from breath samples. Some 16900 subjects were interviewed, with a breath sample refusal rate of about 3.5%. Results showed drivers aged under 25 comprised nearly one- third of all impaired drivers on C3nada's roads at night. The paper describes the characteristics of young drivers and their trips, and compares them to the rest of the population. The night- time roadside information is also compared to information on normal 24 h driving characteristics of the differing age groups, obtained in Canada's national driving survey of 1979. Implications are drawn for possible countermeasures directed at accidents involving alcohol- impaired young drivers.
Samenvatting