Youth, Alcohol, and Speeding: Their Joint Contribution to Highway Accidents

Fingerman, Paul W.; Levine, Jerrold M.; Eisner, Ellen J. · 1976 · ROSA P / American Institutes for Research

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Summary

This 1976 study by Fingerman, Levine, and Eisner investigates the joint contribution of youth, alcohol consumption, and speeding to highway accidents. Motivated by the high rate of fatal accidents among drivers aged 15–24 and prior speculation that the combination of slightly excessive speed and low-to-moderate blood alcohol concentration (BAC) is a primary cause, the research aimed to determine if this specific combination poses a significant risk, particularly for young or inexperienced drivers. The study sought to clarify whether speed and alcohol interact statistically more than expected by chance and how age and driving experience moderate this relationship. The researchers analyzed a sample of 7,354 drivers involved in accidents in North Carolina during 1974. Before analysis, they validated the reliability of police judgments regarding "low-to-moderate" alcohol concentration and "slightly excessive" speed, determining these assessments were sufficiently accurate for empirical study. The data were cross-tabulated into contingency tables and subjected to log-linear analyses to estimate orthogonal relationships among drinking, speeding, age, and experience. The study distinguished between suspected speeding violations and actual speed prior to impact, and examined both all accident-involved drivers and those judged culpable. The results revealed a statistically significant interaction between suspected speeding violations and drinking, as well as between speed prior to impact and drinking. Specifically, there was an excess of accidents involving drinking at speeds above 46 mph. However, the combination of speeding and drinking was rare, occurring in only 2.5% to 3.5% of sampled drivers and accounting for 1.5% to 2.0% of sampled accidents. Crucially, the study found no evidence that the speeding-drinking combination posed a special problem for young drivers; the interaction did not vary significantly by age or driving experience. While young drivers had an excess of drinking accidents at speeds above 46 mph, older drivers showed excesses at both 25–45 mph and above 46 mph. Drivers judged culpable showed an interaction between speed prior to impact and drinking but not between suspected speeding violations and drinking. The authors concluded that there is no basis for countermeasures specifically targeting the combination of speeding and drinking at that time. They recommended further study of speeding and drinking among culpable drivers and an investigation of speed prior to impact in relation to factors like time of day and road type, which might allow for more targeted alcohol countermeasures for specific age segments. The study also advised future research to precisely define driving experience in terms of years licensed.

Key finding

The combination of speeding and drinking was found for only 2.5 to 3.5 percent of sampled drivers, and there was no evidence that this combination posed a special problem for young drivers compared to older ones.

Methodology

dataset

Sample size: 7354

Provenance

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Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.

Topics

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• sex gender
• novice drivers
• incidence prevalence
• alcohol

Information type

What kind of knowledge this paper contributes, grouped by family — independent of topic (what it is about) and method (how it was studied).

• Empirical Findings: observational prevalence, crash risk outcomes
• Methodological Resource: dataset resource