Pilot Test of New Roadside Survey Methodology for Impaired Driving
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Summary
This paper reports on a pilot test conducted by the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation (PIRE) for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to develop and validate new roadside survey methodologies for detecting impaired driving. Historically, national roadside surveys relied solely on breath tests to measure alcohol use among nighttime weekend drivers. This study aimed to expand that scope by incorporating the collection and analysis of oral fluid and blood samples to detect drugs other than alcohol, as well as administering a self-report screening instrument for alcohol use disorders (AUD). The motivation was to establish precise measures of drug-impaired driving to better estimate crash risks and track national progress in reducing impairment. The study consisted of two phases: a feasibility study in Delaware involving approximately 50 drivers, and a larger pilot test conducted at six sites across the United States. The pilot test targeted approximately 600 drivers, representing one-tenth of the sample size planned for the next full-scale national survey. Drivers were randomly selected from traffic at specific locations during weekend nights. The methodology involved collecting breath, oral fluid, and blood samples, alongside brief interviews. Laboratory analyses were performed on the biological specimens to detect ethanol and various drugs, including marijuana, cocaine, amphetamines, and benzodiazepines. The study also tested the practicality of administering an AUD screener at the roadside. The results demonstrated that collecting oral fluid and blood samples from drivers is feasible, though response rates were lower than those for breath tests. Approximately 67% of participants provided oral fluid samples, while 42% provided blood samples. Chemical analyses revealed that about 16% of the nighttime drivers tested positive for drugs other than alcohol. Marijuana and its metabolites were the most frequently detected substances, followed by cocaine and amphetamines. The study found a significant discrepancy between self-reported drug use and objective biological measures, with chemical analyses indicating much higher usage rates than driver self-reports. Additionally, the administration of the AUD screening instrument was found to be feasible and yielded meaningful data. The significance of this pilot test lies in its confirmation that expanding roadside surveys to include biological testing for drugs and AUD screening is practical for large-scale implementation. The findings support the use of objective biological measures over self-reporting for accurate assessment of drug-impaired driving. While the pilot results are not nationally representative due to the limited sample size, they provide the necessary procedural groundwork for the next decennial national roadside survey. This expanded methodology will allow for a more comprehensive understanding of the prevalence of alcohol- and drug-impaired driving, facilitating better policy and enforcement strategies.
Key finding
Approximately 16 percent of nighttime weekend drivers tested positive for drugs other than alcohol in oral fluid or blood samples, with marijuana being the most common detection.
Methodology
field_study
Sample size: 600
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 (6 acquisition events logged).
| Stage | Outcome | Tool | Model | Prompt | Attempts | Completed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| discover | success | rosap | — | — | 2 | 2026-05-23 |
| archive | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-05-23 |
| extract | success | cached | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-10 |
| clean | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-01 |
| chunk | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-01 |
| embed | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-06-02 |
| enrich | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-05-23 |
| promote | success | — | — | — | 1 | 2026-05-23 |
| summarize | success | llm | qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant | summ-v5 | 3 | 2026-06-10 |
| tag | success | vector_similarity | — | — | 19 | 2026-06-11 |
| verify | success | — | — | — | 2 | 2026-06-10 |
Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.
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Information type
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- Empirical Findings: observational prevalence
- Methodological Resource: validation psychometrics, dataset resource