Citation

Keall MD, Frith WJ, Patterson TL. Proc. Australas. Road Safety Res. Policing Educ. Conf. 2003; 7(2): 401-408.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2003, copyright holder varies, Publisher Monash University)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Although the consumption of alcohol prior to driving occurs most commonly at night, drink-driving is not inherently a night-time risk factor. This study decomposes the risk of driving at night into risk associated with alcohol and risk associated with inherently night-time factors. The overall risk associated with alcohol use by drivers was shown to decrease with increasing age for the most risky situation analysed (male drivers on weekend nights). Given the levels of drinking and driving on weekend nights, the overall effect of alcohol was shown to contribute almost half of weekend nighttime risk for most driver age groups. Risk at night relative to risk during the day was shown to follow a U-shaped curve against age, with maxima for young and older drivers. The risks estimated in this paper reflect the behaviour of the road users studied and their prevalence on the roads under the conditions analysed.