Alcohol and Highway Safety 1978: A Review of the State of Knowledge: Summary Volume [GPO-1980-0-308-241]

NHTSA · 1978 · ROSA P / United States. Department of Transportation. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

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Summary

This report, sponsored by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and conducted by the University of Michigan’s Highway Safety Research Institute, provides a comprehensive review of the state of knowledge regarding alcohol and highway safety in the United States as of 1978. The study aims to update the landmark 1968 Department of Transportation report by evaluating existing research on the role of alcohol in highway crashes, assessing previous mitigation efforts, and projecting future trends. The review synthesizes data from approximately 450 practitioners and researchers, focusing on epidemiologic, behavioral, and laboratory studies to define the nature and extent of the alcohol-crash problem. The analysis identifies four primary research approaches: measuring alcohol content in bodily fluids, studying behavioral effects in laboratory settings, assessing driving performance on closed courses or simulators, and conducting epidemiologic studies of driver populations. The report highlights significant methodological challenges, including the lack of clear relationships between laboratory tasks and actual driving performance, inconsistent controls in behavioral studies, and biases in epidemiologic data due to sampling errors and refusal rates. Despite these limitations, the review establishes that alcohol is a major factor in highway crashes. Epidemiologic data from studies conducted between 1962 and 1969 indicate that 40% to 55% of fatally injured drivers had a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.10% w/v or higher, with 29% to 43% exceeding 0.15% w/v. In single-vehicle fatal crashes, the prevalence of high BACs was even greater, ranging from 55% to 65% for drivers exceeding legal limits. The report evaluates various strategies for addressing the alcohol-crash problem, categorizing them into legal, health, public information, technological, and systems approaches. It examines the efficacy of deterrence theories, enforcement, adjudication, and treatment programs such as Alcohol Safety Action Projects (ASAP). The review notes that rigorous evaluation of these programs is often hindered by a lack of proper control groups. Looking toward the 1980s, the report projects continued challenges based on trends in per capita alcohol consumption and demographic shifts in the driving population. It concludes by recommending priorities for future research, emphasizing the need for more consistent data collection methods and rigorous program evaluations to better understand and mitigate the risks associated with drinking and driving.

Key finding

Between 40% and 55% of fatally injured drivers in non-pedestrian crashes had blood alcohol concentrations of 0.10% w/v or higher, with 29% to 43% exceeding 0.15% w/v.

Methodology

review

Provenance

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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.

• alcohol
• dui enforcement
• drowsy as impairment
• alcohol detection systems
• polydrug
• driver education effectiveness

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).

• Applied Guidance: countermeasure evaluation
• Empirical Findings: crash risk outcomes, observational prevalence