Laboratory Evaluation of Alcohol Safety Interlock Systems, Volume II - Instrument Screening Experiments
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Summary
This 1974 report details the laboratory evaluation of prototype Alcohol Safety Interlock Systems (ASIS) designed to prevent intoxicated drivers from operating vehicles. Sponsored by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and conducted by the Guggenheim Center for Aerospace Health and Safety at Harvard, the study aimed to screen instruments that detect intoxication by measuring changes in psychomotor performance. The research sought to determine the relative effectiveness of these devices for social versus problem drinkers, measure correlations between performance and blood alcohol levels, and assess intra-subject variability. The experimental design comprised three phases conducted between August 1971 and April 1972. Phase I served as a pilot study to refine recruitment, training, and alcohol exposure protocols. Subjects were recruited from two groups: "social drinkers" and "problem drinkers" (individuals with licenses suspended for driving under the influence). Researchers found that achieving target blood alcohol levels required strict control of meal fat content and careful history-taking to avoid subject dropout due to illness. Phase II involved comparative testing of eight devices, including the Creare, Drunken Driver Eliminator, A.S. Dwan, Pursuit Tracking, Compensatory Tracking, Complex Reaction Tester, Phystester, and QuicKey. Subjects underwent extensive training to establish stable baseline performance before being tested at blood alcohol levels peaking above 0.09%. Phase III focused on extensive testing of the four most promising devices identified in Phase II. Results from Phase II indicated that four devices—Creare, Drunken Driver Eliminator, and A.S. Dwan—showed unreliable or negligible performance deterioration at higher alcohol levels, with high variability overshadowing small differences. Consequently, these were rejected. The remaining four devices demonstrated reliable individual performance deterioration with increasing blood alcohol levels. The QuicKey, Phystester, and Complex Reaction Tester offered unique approaches to performance testing, while the Compensatory Tracking and Pursuit Tracking devices overlapped in function; the Compensatory Tracking device was selected for its simplicity. Across all devices, problem drinkers performed poorly or comparably to social drinkers, despite exhibiting better interpersonal behavior and responsiveness to directions during testing. Statistical analysis confirmed that problem drinkers performed significantly worse than social drinkers on several devices. The study concluded that psychomotor-based interlock systems could detect intoxication, but device reliability varied significantly. The findings supported the selection of the QuicKey, Phystester, Complex Reaction Tester, and Compensatory Tracking devices for further development. The research highlighted the necessity of rigorous training protocols and controlled alcohol administration to ensure valid data. Furthermore, the distinction between behavioral compliance and psychomotor impairment in problem drinkers suggested that while these individuals might appear more cooperative, their operational capabilities were equally or more compromised by alcohol than those of social drinkers. This work provided a critical foundation for the development of effective alcohol interlock technologies.
Key finding
Registry subjects performed poorer or the same as social subjects on all devices, and while four specific devices showed reliable individual deterioration with increasing blood alcohol levels, high variability often overshadowed performance differences.
Methodology
lab_experiment
Provenance
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Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.
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- Methodological Resource: validation psychometrics