The Effects of Fatigue and Alcohol on Highway Safety

Ryder, Joan M.; Malin, Stacy A.; Kinsley, Craig H. · 1981 · OpenAlex-citations

DOI: 10.1037/e730842011-001

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Summary

This 1981 report by Koba Associates, Inc., prepared for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), addresses the critical gap in understanding how fatigue interacts with alcohol to impair driver performance and contribute to highway accidents. While alcohol’s role in crashes was well-established, evidence suggested that fatigue might be a compounding factor in many alcohol-related incidents, yet the mechanisms and magnitude of this interaction remained unclear. The study aimed to assess the current state of knowledge regarding fatigue definitions, the comparative effects of alcohol and fatigue on driving, the proportion of accidents attributable to these factors, and potential remedies for fatigue-related impairment. The researchers conducted a comprehensive literature review, analyzing primary sources from the preceding 10–15 years and secondary sources for alcohol research. The review focused on four key areas: defining and measuring fatigue, experimental investigations of alcohol and fatigue effects on driver performance, epidemiological estimates of accident causation, and potential countermeasures. The study examined five categories of driving behavior: sensory processes, perception and attention, decision-making, motor and sensorimotor control, and overall vehicle control. The findings indicate that knowledge regarding fatigue is primitive, with no single accepted measurement technique. However, the review identified significant similarities in how alcohol and fatigue impair driving. Both factors reduce information-processing capacity, narrow attention, and decrease peripheral vision processing. Alcohol more severely impairs complex decision-making and motor control, while fatigue more significantly impacts vigilance and simple tasks. Crucially, the review found evidence that fatigue may exacerbate the impairing effects of moderate to large amounts of alcohol, though some studies suggested low alcohol levels might mitigate fatigue effects. Epidemiological data showed that while 40–55% of highway fatalities were attributed to alcohol, estimates for fatigue involvement ranged widely from 2% to 50%, with insufficient data to determine the specific proportion of alcohol-related accidents also caused by fatigue. The report concludes that the combined effect of fatigue and alcohol warrants further research to develop safety countermeasures. It recommends developing a quantifiable measure of fatigue similar to blood alcohol concentration (BAC), noting that subjective scales are promising for research but not enforcement. The authors suggest future studies should use driving simulators, control for confounding variables like age and motivation, and investigate the synergistic effects of varying alcohol dosages under fatigue conditions. Additionally, the report highlights the need for epidemiological research to accurately estimate the contribution of fatigue to accidents and recommends developing in-vehicle alerting devices triggered by performance decrements, such as lane position variability or steering patterns, to mitigate fatigue-related risks.

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