Name:______________________

A survey was made of six hundred drivers who reported having driven an automobile while impaired by alcohol. The purpose of the survey was to identify decision points leading to instances of alcohol-impaired driving and the bases for these decisions. In an article titled "The Bases of Decisions That Lead to Alcohol-Impaired Driving", results were summarized into broad categories and presented in decreasing order of frequency.

1. Social-Environmental Influences

In deciding whether to go to an event where drinking would occur, social influences included:

• Encouragement by friends
• Prospect of meeting friends

In deciding how to get to an event, social influences included:

• Room in the car
• Driver wanted company
• People going as a group

In deciding whether or not to drink, social influences included:

• Others drinking
• Alcohol served
• Drinks offered or provided by others (free)
• Party

In deciding on transportation from the event, social influences included:

• A direct request for the drinker to drive
• No request for the drinker not to drive
• A situation that called for the drinker to drive

2. Personal Influences

In deciding whether to go to an event where drinking would occur, personal influences included:

• Internal factors: desire to go to the event, to be with friends, to find entertainment or food, to visit family

In deciding whether to drink, personal influences included:

• To relax
• To feel the effects of alcohol
• To achieve a mood
• To satisfy a taste
• To feel better

In deciding whether to leave:

• Desire to be somewhere else
• Feeling effects of alcohol
• Fatigue, boredom
• Desire to go home

3. Occasion

The influence of the occasion (something important, such as prom night or graduation) can prompt drinking-a sense that to "celebrate" requires alcohol.

4. Availability and Economics

• How much alcohol was available? Was it flowing like water?
• Did it cost anything? More alcohol was consumed when it was free and there was plenty of it.
• Was an alternative method of transportation affordable? Could you take a taxi or a limousine to prom night?)

5. Prior Planning

• Most drinkers plan to drink.
• Most drinkers plan to drink moderately.
• Most drivers had not made prior plans about transportation after the event.

6. Usual Behavior

• Decisions were often based on habit (for example, usually failing to plan).
• Deciding when and where to drink often involved doing what the person usually did under the circumstance.
• Decisions about transportation were often based on what the person usually did (for example, just get in the car and drive).

A. J. McKnight, E. A. Langston, A. S. McKnight and J. E. Lange. The Bases of Decisions Leading to Alcohol Impaired Driving. National Public Services Research Institute, Landover, MD.