Smoking and traffic accident involvement : a review of the literature.

The evidence of over- involvement of smokers in traffic accidents /violations (relative to non- smokers) would appear to be substantial. However, the causal mechanisms underlying this over representation are not clear. Physical and physiologically- based explanations appear to play a role, though not a major one, nor one that is clearly defined. These aspects may require further investigation to determine their relative importance. In general, further research would seem to be required to identify casual, links, if any, between smoking, risk taking behaviour (s) and traffic accident involvement.