Effects of moderate blood alcohol concentrations on closed-course driving performance.

Abstract

The effects of three different blood alcohol concentrations (mean, 0.033, 0.063 and 0.079%) on performance of several closed-course driving tasks (velocity maintenance, car following and stopping) were studied in 6 social drinkers (men aged 22-25). The descriptive variables derived for each of the 3 driving tasks were subjected to uni- and multivariate analyses. When each of the derived performance measures was considered individually, driver behavior appeared to be influenced by alcohol. When combinations of performance measures were considered, performance differences between sober and intoxicated drivers could be discriminated by multivariate functions though not by univariate analyses. The application of multivariate criteria to the development of an online system to monitor driver behavior is discussed.