Foley, James L., Jr.

English

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Engineering for the Alcoholic D riverJ a m e s  L. F o l e y  J r .R etired  D irector Office of H ighw ay Safety Federal H ighw ay A dm inistration  Presiden t, Institu te  of T ransporta tion  E ngineers B altim ore, M .D .T h ere  is a need to m ake the environm ent, especially for the d river u n d e r the influence, a b it m ore forgiving.D runk  driving continues to be one of our na tion ’s m ost serious health and  safety problem s. O ver the past 10 years, m illions of people have been seriously in ju red  and 250,000 have died in m oto r vehicle accidents involving alcohol. Such crashes account for about half of all highw ay fatalities. A part from the hum an  suffering and family d isruption it causes, d ru n k  driving  has a high econom ic cost to the co u n try — estim ated at 21 to 24 billion dollars a year.A large m ajority  of drivers d rink  on occasion. But their d rink ing  is not excessive and  they seem to pose no particu lar th rea t to them selves or o ther on the highw ay. T he real problem  lies w ith the relatively small p roportion  of heavy d rinkers— about seven percen t of the driv ing  popu la tion—who account for tw o-thirds of all alcohol involved fatal crashes.L e t’s look briefly at some difficulties faced by the present control system . A t present, d runk  drivers d o n ’t believe tha t they ’re going to get caught. A nd they are usually  right. T hey  m ay be stopped only once in a thousand  or m ore trips. I f  they are caught, they assum e tha t they w o n ’t be convicted or that the penalties will be light. A gain, they are usually right. T h us the system  is not w orking; the risk of punishm ent is low so the deterren t effect is weak.As presently  constituted , m any jud icial system s cannot handle drink ing  driver cases in a swift, certain  m anner. In  addition  m any police officers are reluctant to arrest d runk  drivers because the arrest procedures on tha t charge are m ore cum bersom e and  tim e-consum ing than  for any other traffic offense. M any police chiefs have not m ade the arrest of d runk  drivers a high priority ; probably  because the public has not m ade this a m ajo r issue in m ost com m unities.C ourts often are reluctant to convict on a drunk driving charge. M any judges consider the rigid penalties established by state legislatures— such as m andato ry  ja il sentences or revocation of the d riv e r’s licence— as too harsh . Except for hav ing  an  alcohol p roblem , they appear to be norm al27law -abiding people for w hom  such harsh  sanctions are inappropria te . D runk  driving court cases are also very tim e-consum ing. W hen penalties are increased, the dem and for ju ry  trials increase. These take m ore tim e and  clog the system further.T he Safety A dm inistration’s estimate that seven percent of the driving population  are h ard  core drinkers seems to be supported  by Alcoholics A nonym ous. T hey  estim ate tha t 10 percent of the adult population  in the U n ited  States are alcoholics. T his estim ate includes the ir own m em bers, m any of w hom  have been total absta iners for years bu t who know tha t even one drink will start them  on a course of events tha t will progress to blackouts and even skid row.Studies by the N ational H ighw ay T raffic Safety A dm inistration  suggest tha t previous D W I (driv ing  while intoxicated) convictions to not deter drivers from  driving  again after hav ing  consum ed enough alcohol to reach 0.10 blood alcohol concentration  or BAC (m l/1).From  the above it is clear to me tha t engineers m ust consider the ‘‘D river U n d er the In fluence”  when designing or im proving of alcohol or some o ther d ru g — alcohol seems to be m ore acceptable socially though I d o n ’t understand why—is in a very real sense a disabled driver. Reflexes and  the ability to process inform ation are slowed. V ision is b lu rred  and peripheral vision—essential to the driving task— is decreased. Search p a t­terns are constrained. T he ability to read  signs or identify roadside delineators and o ther fixed objects is reduced. Inh ib itions are released and  there is an inclination to drive at excessive speed ( a sam ple of alcohol— involved fatalities in M ary land  tha t I review ed shows 61 % in ­volved speeding.) All of these increase the risk of a serious highway crash.T h ere  seems to be a dearth  of studies which exam ine the re la tion ­ship betw een D W I and  the highw ay environm ent. I was able to find only one! I ’ve since learned tha t some w ork is now being done in A ustralia.In an effort to see whether any relationship could be found or inferred, th rough  the courtesy of the M ary land  State Police, I w ent th rough  all reports of fatal accidents in M ary land  du rin g  1982, except B altim ore C ity  accidents. I exam ined all those in which alcohol was a factor and identified the type of highw ay on which they occurred. U nfortunately , the accident reports did not include as m uch  roadw ay inform ation as I would have liked. H ow ever, I was able to fit them  into three broad  categories: In tersta te , O th e r A rterials, and  C ollector/Local roads.ALCOHOL INVOLVED FATAL ACCIDENTSFatalAccidentsT ravel 100MVM RateInterstate 27 65 0.42Arterials 141 141 1.00Collector/Local 81 64 1.2728T his tabulation  shows the num ber of fatal accidents in which alcohol was involved and  the estim ated fatal accident ra te  for these accidents. I believe that b e tte r design standards and  app rop ria te  traffic control devices play a significant role in the low er rates for the h igher type highw ays.T he one study of d runk  driv ing  and  the highw ay tha t I have seen which attem pts to relate highw ay elem ents to the needs of the alcoholic driver was conducted by Potters Industries. They m anufacture delineators and  glass beads for reflectorizing pavem ent m arkings. A lthough I am  instinctively suspicious of research tha t appears to be self-serving, this seems to have been a well conducted study.I had the opportun ity  to visit the study site and  exam ine the vehicle used in the tests. For safety purposes it was a dual-contro l vehicle used for d river education . O ne un ique feature of the study was its env iron ­m ent. It was conducted  on a public highw ay; a two way two lane local road in W est M ilford  Tow nship, New Jersey . T he police closed the road to traffic while the tests were underw ay.T he study com pared young m ale drivers who had  zero BAC w ith those dosed to 0.05 and 0.08 BAC. T he drivers were given a b reath  test to verify the BAC of each driver. As we w ould suspect, the im paired  drivers drove m ore erratically  than  the sober ones. T hey  also tended to drift to the edges of the lane m ore often and to over-correct w hen they realized w here they were.V ery  briefly, Potters found that w here w ider lines were used, the drivers who had  been drink ing  tended to weave less and  stay w ithin the lane m ore successfully. W hile the perform ance of the un im paired  drivers also im proved, the relative degree of im provem ent was greater for the im paired  driver. W ith  w ider edge lines, drivers shifted away from  the edge of the road  while also m oving slightly from the centerline. T he greatest im provem ent took place when the four-inch line was used in ­stead of none. T his study is reported  in the N ovem ber 1980 IT E  Jo u rn a l and  in greater detail in T R B  R ecord 847.I believe tha t m ore studies exam ining  the effect of highw ay design and traffic control devices on drivers under the influence of alcohol should be conducted  to identify those highw ay characteristics and  traffic control devices which can aid the im paired  driver. Since it seems tha t it is not possible to totally elim inate the d rink ing  d river from  the highw ay, we highw ay designers and  m ain ta iners m ust therefore do all we can to help him  by im proving the environm ent in which he operates. This will have the added  benefit of decreasing the n u m b er of crashes in which o ther m arg inal drivers such as sleepy or inatten tive persons are involved.I hope I have stim ulated some th ink ing  about this serious problem . T here  is no doub t tha t we still face m any  difficulties in dealing w ith the problem s of d runk  driving. T he highway engineer and  m aintenance p er­29sonnel can play a significant role in easing the task. It can ’t be done overnight obviously, but steady, consistent effort can pay big d ividends over tim e. U ltim ately this could save thousands of lives! Perhaps a logical starting  point w ould be to exam ine ou r lower class roads— tw o-thirds of ou r highway system —to identify the most glaring deficiencies and work on them .30

Engineering for the Alcoholic Driver

https://docs.lib.purdue.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3322&amp;context=roadschool

Engineering for the Alcoholic Driver

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