Psychosocial characteristics of alcohol-involved and nonalcohol-involved seriously injured drivers

This study compared two groups of alcohol-positive and alcohol-negative, seriously injured, crash-involved drivers on demographics, personality characteristics, driving-related attitudes, prior driving history, lifestyle, substance use, and antecedent driver condition. The study sample was drawn from motor vehicle accident admissions to the Sunnybrook Health Science Centre Regional Trauma Unit. One hundred and six interviews were completed between August 1986 and November 1989, with blood alcohol concentration (BAC) data available for 96 drivers. These data suggest no driving-related attitude differences between the two groups. Self-reported driving histories indicated significantly fewer graduates of driving schools and more licence suspensions for the BAC-positive group. The only consistently significant differences were found for the drinking-related variables, with a greater percentage of the BAC-positive group reporting: lower age of first intoxication; a greater self-perceived drinking problem; a greater frequency of intoxication in the month before the accident; and greater self-reported drinking-driving in the month before the accident. Principal-components factor analysis revealed a four-factor solution labelled: Alcohol Use, Deviant/Illicit Drug Use, Aggression, and Neuroticism. Alcohol Use was the only factor found to contribute substantially to the discriminant function, together with the job-related stress item. These data suggest that seriously injured, alcohol-positive and alcohol-negative crashed drivers are similar except that the alcohol-positive drivers show more signs of an alcohol problem.