Report of an International Symposium on Drugs and Driving

Joscelyn, Kent B.; Maickel, Roger P. · 1975 · ROSA P / United States. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

archive: archived pipeline: cataloged verified

Get this paper ↗ (full text — opens at the source; we link to it, we don't host it)

Summary

This report documents the proceedings of an International Symposium on Drugs and Driving, held in April 1975 at Indiana University under sponsorship of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The symposium addressed the research gap regarding the impact of drugs, excluding alcohol alone, on highway safety. Motivated by the rising prevalence of psychotropic drug use and the lack of definitive data linking these substances to traffic crashes, the event aimed to ascertain the state of current knowledge, identify research needs, and propose immediate countermeasures. The methodology involved a working conference format with 30 leading researchers and practitioners. Participants were divided into five working groups to discuss specific topics: risk identification, behavioral measurement methodology, drug measurement in biological samples, legal and practical constraints on research, and countermeasure development. The process combined formal presentations by experts, such as Dr. Gerald Milner and Dr. Reginald Smart, with small-group discussions to synthesize existing literature and identify information gaps. The report serves as an interim summary of these discussions, preceding further detailed technical reports. Key findings indicated that while the precise magnitude of the drug/driving problem remains undefined due to methodological limitations, existing evidence suggests a serious risk. Surveys cited in the report estimated that 10 to 20 percent of drivers use some drug at any given time, and 11 to 15 percent of accident-involved drivers had taken drugs prior to crashes. The symposium highlighted that drugs impair driving through alterations in judgment, perception, reaction time, and psychomotor skills. Specific drug classes identified as posing potential risk included antidepressants, antihistaminics, antipsychotics, anxiolytics, narcotics, sedatives, and stimulants. The report noted that current detection methods often fail to correlate drug presence with impairment, and that the interaction between drugs and alcohol significantly increases risk. The significance of the report lies in its identification of critical research requirements and the need for coordinated approaches to risk assessment. The authors concluded that while absolute proof of causation in crashes is difficult to obtain, the pharmacological effects of many widely prescribed drugs necessitate further investigation. The symposium recommended immediate actions, including improved methods for measuring drug effects on behavior and refining analytical techniques for biological samples. It also emphasized the need to address legal constraints on human subject research to facilitate future studies. The report underscores that the field of drug/driving research was in a state comparable to alcohol research in the 1930s, requiring urgent epidemiological and experimental efforts to define risks and develop effective countermeasures.

Key finding

The symposium concluded that while existing evidence suggests drugs contribute to traffic crashes, methodological limitations prevent precise quantification of the problem, necessitating further coordinated research and the development of countermeasures.

Methodology

review

Provenance

The full processing record for this entry. Every stage of this paper's journey through the pipeline is logged — what ran, with which tool and model, how many attempts it took, and when it last completed. Discovered via bulk_ingest_rosap on 2026-05-23 (45 acquisition events logged).

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

Topics

Ranked by relevance to this paper. Hover a topic for its definition.

• illicit drugs
• polydrug
• prescription meds
• drowsy as impairment
• cannabis
• dui enforcement

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
• Methodological Resource: validation psychometrics