Deterrence of drug driving: The impact of the ACT drug driving legislation and detection techniques

Drug driving is a significant road safety concern rendering the implementation of roadside drug testing in all Australian jurisdictions. The current research sought to examine the impact of recently introduced roadside oral fluid screening in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT). Specifically, the study sought to examine drivers’ awareness, perceptions and perceived deterrent impact of these operations and the degree to which they influence likelihood of future drug driving. A total of 801 male and female motorists aged 17–88 years of age completed a phone interview assessing demographics (e.g., driving and drug taking history), awareness and perceived effectiveness of roadside drug testing, and constructs central to both Classical Deterrence Theory (i.e., certainty, severity, swiftness) and reconceptualised deterrence theory (direct and vicarious experiences of both punishment and punishment avoidance) frameworks. Overall, despite an apparent decline in drug driving behaviour since the introduction of roadside testing, a large proportion of driver’s possessed a poor awareness of these operations and did not perceive a high certainty of apprehension. Age, punishment avoidance and vicarious punishment avoidance were found to predict future likelihood of drug driving, whilst Classical Deterrence Theory variables did not. Contrary to expectations and previous studies, few significant differences were found with regards to gender. Findings are interpreted in light of the recency of roadside drug testing in the ACT and the need for future studies to examine the impact of such operations. Further recommendations for augmenting the deterrence of drug driving are discussed.     

The Transition Experiences of British Military Veterans

The aim of the current research was to investigate the transition experiences of British military veterans upon exiting the military and rejoining civilian society, asking the specific research question: What effect does the transition from military to civilian life have on the individual's identity? Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was employed and seven semistructured interviews were carried out with ex‐military personnel. Analysis of the data revealed three superordinate themes: (1) Several Selves: Identity; (2) Soldier and Society: Separation, and (3) Transition Time: Personal Perspective. Current findings suggest that transition from the military back to civilian life is often problematic, with identity complications, feelings of loss, and disconnection both from the military and from society in general. Individuals with a more salient military identity had more difficult transition experiences. Findings are discussed with reference to theories of identity formation, maintenance, and salience and recommendations for future research are made.     

Convergent,discriminant, and predictive validity of aggressive driving inventories: they drive as they live

The authors hypothesized that aggressive driving is indicative of a more general trait that leads individuals to behave aggressively in different situations. This hypothesis was tested by having 85 male and 237 female undergraduates complete the Aggression Questionnaire, three measures of aggressive driving (the Driver Anger Scale, Driver Vengeance Questionnaire, and Driving Behavior Inventory), and questions about violating traffic laws. High correlations among the aggressive driving inventories provided evidence for the convergent validity, but a confirmatory factor analyses raised questions about the discriminant validity of aggressive driving inventories. The inventories did not attain significance in hierarchical analyses of traffic violations that controlled for gender, driving experience, and measures of trait aggression. It is concluded that there is little unique about aggressive driving and that individuals drive as they live. Aggr. Behav. 32:89–98, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.     

Psychiatric and behavioral problems in aggressive drivers

Motor vehicle accidents (MVAs) are a leading cause of accidental death and injury, and aggressive driving has been identified as a risk factor for MVAs. Assessing psychiatric and behavioral disturbances in aggressive drivers is germane to the development of prevention and intervention programs for this population. The present study compared the prevalence of psychiatric diagnoses and behavioral problems in young adult drivers with self-reported high driving aggression to that of drivers with low driving aggression. Aggressive drivers evidenced a significantly higher current and lifetime prevalence of Oppositional Defiant Disorder, Alcohol and Substance Use Disorders, and Cluster B Personality Disorders, and a significantly greater lifetime prevalence of Conduct Disorder, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, and Intermittent Explosive Disorder. Aggressive drivers also had a significantly greater prevalence of self-reported problems with anger, as well as a greater family history of anger problems and conflict. The findings suggest that prevention and intervention programs designed to reduce aggressive driving may need to address the presence of psychiatric and behavioral problems that could potentially complicate treatment or impede responses to treatment.     

The assessment of fitness to drive after a stroke: the Nordic Stroke Driver Screening Assessment

The British Stroke Driver Screening Assessment (SDSA) is a set of four simple cognitive tests to evaluate driving fitness in stroke patients. To evaluate its usefulness in a Scandinavian context, we adapted the tests and assessed a group of 97 stroke patients from Sweden and Norway, using a driving test as the criterion. When results were calculated according to the original method, based on a discriminant function, less than 70% of the participants were correctly classified. To improve the predictive potential, a new discriminant analysis was performed, using the scores of a subsample of 49 patients, and validated on the remaining 48 participants. In total, 78% of the patients were correctly classified, but specificity was superior to sensitivity. We conclude that the Nordic version of the SDSA is a useful instrument, provided that test scores are interpreted in a balanced manner, taking into account the possibility of compensatory traffic behavior.     

The effects of nighttime seat belt enforcement on seat belt use by tavern patrons: a preliminary analysis.

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of police enforcement and the use of signs and posters in promoting seat belt use by nighttime tavern patrons. Ten taverns in two cities served as sites. Data were collected on the nighttime seat belt use of tavern patrons and daytime citywide seat belt use. Results indicated that the intervention increased nighttime seat belt use by tavern patrons. Daytime seat belt use increased in one city and remained at a high level in the other following the intervention. Because previous research has shown that tavern patrons are overrepresented in the impaired driving population, and that seat belt use decreases the likelihood of serious injury or death, results of this study suggest that enforcement of seat belt use could reduce casualties resulting from impaired driving.     

NATURALISTIC OBSERVATIONS OF BEER DRINKING AMONG COLLEGE STUDENTS

We observed the beer drinking behavior of 308 university students in several bar and party settings. The following relationships were found: (a) males drinking beer in bars consumed 0.92 oz per min; (b) females drank less beer than males, and stayed in a bar for a longer time period; (c) patrons drank significantly more beer when drinking in groups and when purchasing beer in pitchers versus cups or bottles; and (d) intervals between party arrival and first drink and between party departure and last drink varied inversely with blood alcohol concentration. We discuss these findings with regard to developing interventions to prevent alcohol-impaired driving.     

Supporting the changing driver’s task: Exploration of interface designs for supervision and intervention in automated driving

Driving automation leads to a changing role for drivers, that is from manual vehicle control to supervising automation. Supervision of partial automation requires now and then intervention. Since the automation causes low vigilance and out-of-the-loop performance problems, this changing role is not well suited for human operators. To explore how driver-vehicle interfaces can support drivers in their changed role, we tested three concepts. Concept A was a baseline reference, providing only acoustic warnings. Concept B presented status-information and warnings behind the steering wheel. Concept C used illumination and haptic feedback in the seat-pan to direct attention outside the vehicle and to stimulate response. Concept C only provided vibrotactile feedback when intervention was needed. Results of our study show improved support for supervision with the illumination-concept, i.e. better hazard-detection and raised levels of Situation Awareness in some scenarios relevant for supervisory control. Knowing that supervision will be the dominating driver’s responsibility during partially automated driving, the illumination-concept is a recommended solution for support of the driver’s changing role. Nonetheless, neither concept B, nor C, showed additional support for intervention compared to the baseline. It was hypothesised that the combination of concept C’s stimuli for intervention-support caused counter-productive levels of annoyance. Furthermore, we concluded that intervention and supervision benefit from different interface-features and discussed possible causes underlying ambiguity between support for supervision and support for intervention shown with concept C. Therewith, the considerations in this paper contribute to further development of – and knowledge about – appropriate driver-vehicle interaction while vehicle-operation advances into operating partially automated driving systems.     

Debating drunk driving: The construction of causal explanations in television discussion programmes

The mass media are an important source of social understandings and representations. The growing genre of audience discussion programmes functions as a public forum for airing opinions on issues of social concern. The genre is structured so as to involve viewers, to validate ordinary experiences and to express opinion. Four programmes on drunk driving were analysed for the causal explanations they offer viewers. The causes, effects and causal interconnections used within each programme were analysed, and networks of the overall representations of drunk driving were constructed. These showed a broad consensus of causes and effects across programmes, but different explanations in terms of locus, stability and controllability. Programmes typically offered lists of important factors, rather than structured arguments, despite the debating framework. There was an emphasis on external, stable, controllable causes in the programmes.     

Mechanics of the animate.

Behavior is treated as basic physics. Dimensions are identified and their transformations from physical specification to axes in behavioral space are suggested. Responses are treated as action patterns arrayed along a continuum of activation energy. Behavior is seen as movement along a trajectory through this behavior space. Incentives or reinforcers are attractors in behavior space, at the centers of basins of lowered potential. Trajectories impinging on such basins may be captured; repeated capture will warp the trajectory toward a geodesic, a process called conditioning. Conditioning is enhanced by contiguity, the proximity between the measured behavior and the incentive at the end of the trajectory, and by contingency, the depth of the trajectory below the average level of the potential energy landscape. Motivation is seen as the potential of an organism for motion under the forces impinging on it. Degree of motivation is characterized by the depth of the potential field, with low motivation corresponding to a flat field and a flat gradient of activation energy. Drives are the forces of incentives propagated through behavior space. Different laws for the attenuation of drive with behavioral distance are discussed, as is the dynamics of action. The basic postulate of behavior mechanics is incentive-tracking in behavior space, the energy for which is provided by decreases in potential. The relation of temporal gradients to response differentiation and temporal discrimination is analyzed. Various two-body problems are sketched to illustrate the application of these ideas to association, choice, scalar timing, self-control, and freedom.