1973 U.S. National Roadside Breathtesting Survey: Procedures and Results

Wolfe, Arthur C. · 1974 · ROSA P / United States. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

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Summary

This report details the procedures and findings of the 1973 U.S. National Roadside Breathtesting Survey, the first nationwide study of its kind conducted under OECD guidelines. Sponsored by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and executed by the Highway Safety Research Institute, the study aimed to establish a national baseline for the prevalence of driving after drinking. This data was intended to evaluate Alcohol Safety Action Programs and monitor changes in drunk driving behavior over time. The survey employed a multi-stage probability sampling design to ensure national representativeness. Researchers selected 24 primary sampling areas across 18 states, stratified by region and urban/rural classification, using 1970 census population data. Within these areas, 185 roadside locations were chosen on medium and heavy-volume roads. Data collection occurred on eight weekends between October 26 and December 16, 1973, specifically during Friday and Saturday nights from 10:00 PM to 3:00 AM. Motorists were randomly stopped by police officers, interviewed, and administered breath tests. The final dataset comprised 3,358 interviews and 3,192 satisfactory breath test results from 3,698 stopped motorists. The results indicated significant levels of alcohol-impaired driving during the survey hours. Nationally, 22.6% of drivers had a Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) of 0.02% or higher, while 13.5% were at or above 0.05%, a level associated with probable impairment. Five percent of drivers had a BAC of 0.10% or higher, the legal impairment threshold in all states at the time, and 1.4% were at 0.15% or higher. The prevalence of drinking drivers increased substantially as the night progressed, more than doubling between 10:00–11:00 PM and 2:00–3:00 AM. Geographically, impaired driving was more prevalent in rural areas and in the South (14.8%) and Midwest (14.1%) compared to the Northeast (12.6%) and West (11.7%). Demographic analysis revealed that males, blue-collar workers, non-high-school graduates, divorcees, and individuals aged 21–44 were disproportionately represented among heavy drinkers. Additionally, drivers with high BACs were less likely to have discussed drunk driving recently and less willing to support increased taxes for alcohol safety programs. The report concludes that national roadside breathtesting surveys are a valuable and cost-effective method for generating evaluative data on drinking and driving. It provides ten operational recommendations for improving future surveys and includes extensive appendices with codebooks and marginal distributions to support further analysis. The study successfully demonstrated the feasibility of conducting large-scale, standardized roadside surveys to inform traffic safety policy.

Key finding

22.6% of the national sample of nighttime drivers had a blood alcohol concentration of 0.02% or higher, with 5.0% at 0.10% or higher.

Methodology

naturalistic

Sample size: 3698

Provenance

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

Topics

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• dui enforcement
• incidence prevalence

Information type

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• Empirical Findings: observational prevalence
• Methodological Resource: dataset resource