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Driving under the influence of alcohol: frequency, reasons, perceived risk and punishment

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to gain information useful to improve traffic safety, concerning the following aspects for DUI (Driving Under the Influence): frequency, reasons, perceived risk, drivers' knowledge of the related penalties, perceived likelihood of being punished, drivers’ p...

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Autores principales: Alonso, Francisco, Pastor, Juan C, Montoro, Luis, Esteban, Cristina
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2015
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4359384/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25880078
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13011-015-0007-4
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author Alonso, Francisco
Pastor, Juan C
Montoro, Luis
Esteban, Cristina
author_facet Alonso, Francisco
Pastor, Juan C
Montoro, Luis
Esteban, Cristina
author_sort Alonso, Francisco
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to gain information useful to improve traffic safety, concerning the following aspects for DUI (Driving Under the Influence): frequency, reasons, perceived risk, drivers' knowledge of the related penalties, perceived likelihood of being punished, drivers’ perception of the harshness of punitive measures and drivers’ perception of the probability of behavioral change after punishment for DUI. METHODS: A sample of 1100 Spanish drivers, 678 men and 422 women aged from 14 to 65 years old, took part in a telephone survey using a questionnaire to gather sociodemographic and psychosocial information about drivers, as well as information on enforcement, clustered in five related categories: “Knowledge and perception of traffic norms”; “Opinions on sanctions”; “Opinions on policing”; “Opinions on laws” (in general and on traffic); and “Assessment of the effectiveness of various punitive measures”. RESULTS: Results showed around 60% of respondents believe that driving under the influence of alcohol is maximum risk behavior. Nevertheless, 90.2% of the sample said they never or almost never drove under the influence of alcohol. In this case, the main reasons were to avoid accidents (28.3%) as opposed to avoiding sanctions (10.4%). On the contrary, the remaining 9.7% acknowledged they had driven after consuming alcohol. It is noted that the main reasons for doing so were “not having another way to return home” (24.5%) and alcohol consumption being associated with meals (17.3%). Another important finding is that the risk perception of traffic accident as a result of DUI is influenced by variables such as sex and age. With regard to the type of sanctions, 90% think that DUI is punishable by a fine, 96.4% that it may result in temporary or permanent suspension of driving license, and 70% that it can be punished with imprisonment. CONCLUSIONS: Knowing how alcohol consumption impairs safe driving and skills, being aware of the associated risks, knowing the traffic regulations concerning DUI, and penalizing it strongly are not enough. Additional efforts are needed to better manage a problem with such important social and practical consequences.
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spelling pubmed-43593842015-03-15 Driving under the influence of alcohol: frequency, reasons, perceived risk and punishment Alonso, Francisco Pastor, Juan C Montoro, Luis Esteban, Cristina Subst Abuse Treat Prev Policy Research BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to gain information useful to improve traffic safety, concerning the following aspects for DUI (Driving Under the Influence): frequency, reasons, perceived risk, drivers' knowledge of the related penalties, perceived likelihood of being punished, drivers’ perception of the harshness of punitive measures and drivers’ perception of the probability of behavioral change after punishment for DUI. METHODS: A sample of 1100 Spanish drivers, 678 men and 422 women aged from 14 to 65 years old, took part in a telephone survey using a questionnaire to gather sociodemographic and psychosocial information about drivers, as well as information on enforcement, clustered in five related categories: “Knowledge and perception of traffic norms”; “Opinions on sanctions”; “Opinions on policing”; “Opinions on laws” (in general and on traffic); and “Assessment of the effectiveness of various punitive measures”. RESULTS: Results showed around 60% of respondents believe that driving under the influence of alcohol is maximum risk behavior. Nevertheless, 90.2% of the sample said they never or almost never drove under the influence of alcohol. In this case, the main reasons were to avoid accidents (28.3%) as opposed to avoiding sanctions (10.4%). On the contrary, the remaining 9.7% acknowledged they had driven after consuming alcohol. It is noted that the main reasons for doing so were “not having another way to return home” (24.5%) and alcohol consumption being associated with meals (17.3%). Another important finding is that the risk perception of traffic accident as a result of DUI is influenced by variables such as sex and age. With regard to the type of sanctions, 90% think that DUI is punishable by a fine, 96.4% that it may result in temporary or permanent suspension of driving license, and 70% that it can be punished with imprisonment. CONCLUSIONS: Knowing how alcohol consumption impairs safe driving and skills, being aware of the associated risks, knowing the traffic regulations concerning DUI, and penalizing it strongly are not enough. Additional efforts are needed to better manage a problem with such important social and practical consequences. BioMed Central 2015-03-12 /pmc/articles/PMC4359384/ /pubmed/25880078 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13011-015-0007-4 Text en © Alonso et al.; licensee BioMed Central. 2015 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
spellingShingle Research
Alonso, Francisco
Pastor, Juan C
Montoro, Luis
Esteban, Cristina
Driving under the influence of alcohol: frequency, reasons, perceived risk and punishment
title Driving under the influence of alcohol: frequency, reasons, perceived risk and punishment
title_full Driving under the influence of alcohol: frequency, reasons, perceived risk and punishment
title_fullStr Driving under the influence of alcohol: frequency, reasons, perceived risk and punishment
title_full_unstemmed Driving under the influence of alcohol: frequency, reasons, perceived risk and punishment
title_short Driving under the influence of alcohol: frequency, reasons, perceived risk and punishment
title_sort driving under the influence of alcohol: frequency, reasons, perceived risk and punishment
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4359384/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25880078
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s13011-015-0007-4
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