Drinking patterns, risk taking and road accidents of young drivers: Results of a Swiss case-control study

Abstract

A case-control study was conducted to test hypotheses about involvement in alcohol-related road accidents. Cases were defined as all male drivers between 18 and 25 years of age who were involved in a police-registered alcohol-related road accident in the Swiss cantons of Vaud and Ticino or the city of Zurich in 1990 and who had a BAC level of 0.8% and more (N = 306). Accident-free controls were drawn from registers of all persons with a driver's licence, matched for sex, age, and place of residence (N = 612). The main research instrument was a questionnaire distributed to cases and controls. Since response rates were relatively low in both groups (ca. 35%), specific analyses were undertaken to exclude the possibility of a selection bias. Results demonstrated that drinking pattern and risk behaviour were important contributing factors to the accidents. Especially, male persons with a permanent heavy-drinking style, males with a risky-driving style plus a regular or periodically heavy-drinking style, and persons who enjoy taking risks and drink to cope, increase their risk of being involved in an alcohol-related traffic accident more than sixfold. A tendency to engage generally in risky behaviour did not increase the risk of involvement in an alcohol accident.

Personal and situational influences on drink driving and sober driving among a cohort of young adults

“…The most important finding was the highly significant association between alcohol and cannabis dependence at age 21 and being involved in a drink drive incident at age 26. Similar findings have been previously reported, [19][20][21] and it is an important point because those who are dependent on alcohol have extreme difficulty modifying their drinking behaviour. They can, however, make decisions about driving, and interventions specifically designed to encourage this group not to drive must be considered.…”

“…Earlier data had been obtained from this cohort on alcohol dependence, which is known to be associated with drink driving 19 20 and traffic crashes. 21 The aims of this study were (a) to compare the personal characteristics of those who drink and drive, or travel with a drink driver, with those who did not and (b) to examine differences in the situational factors surrounding drink drive and sober drive occasions, and from this identify strategies that had been used to successfully to avoid drink drive incident. In the past month had driven a car within two hours of drinking alcohol and thought driving might have been unsafe …”

Drinking behaviour among teenagers in Switzerland and correlation with lifestyles

“…In the above cited Swiss study on trac injuries [17], 25% of the young people included in the study had not used their seat belt. As far as mental health is concerned, we and others found [13] an association with suicidal conduct.…”

“…Furthermore, teenagers are allowed to drink alcohol from the age of 16 years without being accompanied by an adult and in this country, drinking alcohol represents an accepted social habit. However, heavy alcohol use and alcohol abuse or dependence is linked with numerous health problems, the most striking being the risk of road trac accidents [15,17].…”

Addiction research centres and the nurturing of creativity: The Swiss Institute for the Prevention of Alcohol and Drug Problems. Past, present and future

“…SIPA was also involved in more scene-related studies (e.g. ecstasy and rave parties [12], the perception of the level of blood alcohol of young drivers after clubbing [13]) and in innovative pilot studies (e.g. tests of illegal alcohol sales to young people [14]).…”