How to measure driving ability under the influence of alcohol and drugs, and why

Abstract

Car driving performance is easily disrupted as a consequence of the use of alcohol and/or (il)licit drugs. Various aspects of vehicle handling have been used to measure drug eects, including: lateral position deviation, steering wheel handling, speed control, use of pedals and headway control. Alcohol, as well as producing changes in physiological measures of heart rate, signi®cantly aected measures of vehicle handling. Similar impairments have also been found during the day following nocturnal use of hypnotics. The direction of drug eects on car handling skills is facilitated by appropriate methodological strategies for the monitoring of driver impairment. # 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Combined effects of alcohol and distraction on driving performance

“…However individual differences caused a moderate range of BAC levels for the alcohol group (Table 1) for which there is precedent (Friel et al, 1995). Degraded driving performance of BACs at or above 0.05 (Council on Scientific Affairs, 1986;Brookhuis, 1998) and 0.04 (Holloway, 1995;Moskowitz and Fiorentino, 2000) has been reported. Therefore, the achieved intoxication level was considered a sufficient and adequate level of impairment.…”

“…of lane position. Brookhuis (1998) reasoned that larger S.D.s indicate a higher likelihood of having a lane exceedance, and therefore also of having a crash.…”

Effects of a moderate dose of alcohol on simulated laparoscopic surgical performance

“…Although there is a wide-ranging literature on the effects of alcohol on simulated driving [2] and piloting tasks [4], little published evidence is available concerning the effects of alcohol on any aspect of medical performance. One likely reason why this should be so is that the objective and quantitative assessment of many aspects of medical performance presents substantial methodological difficulties.…”

Enhanced Presence in Driving Simulators Using Autonomous Traffic with Virtual Personalities

“…This is manifested as a signi cant increase in standard deviation of speed during cases of severe sedation. Tests with prescription drugs at the Center for Environmental and Traf c Psychology (COV) have recorded a 5% increase in speed variability (Brookhuis, 1998).…”