Effect of low and moderate doses of alcohol on driving hazard perception latency and driving speed

Both driving speed and speed of detection of potentially hazardous events while driving have been found to correlate positively with accident rates across individuals. Alcohol ingestion is also known to increase risk of a traffic accident. This paper reports two double-blind, placebo-controlled studies: one on the effect of alcohol on driving speed and the other on the effect of alcohol on time taken to detect potential traffic hazards. Moderate drinkers aged between 30 and 55 took part. Each subject underwent three experimental conditions on separate days: no alcohol, low alcohol (0.025% BAC) and moderate alcohol (0.05% BAC). The order of conditions was counterbalanced. The moderate alcohol dose increased mean time taken to respond to hazards (2.5 s in no alcohol condition compared with 3.2 s in moderate alcohol condition) but did not affect mean driving speed (indexed by time taken to travel sections of a fixed route; 19.3 s in no alcohol compared with 19.0 s in moderate alcohol). The results support the view that at least part of the excess risk of accident associated with alcohol ingestion is attributable to an increase in the time taken to respond to traffic hazards.