On the Costs of In-vehicle Assessment of Alcohol Consumption

Abstract

Driving under the influence of alcohol poses a significant threat to community health and safety. One approach to thwart drinking and driving involves using an interlock device to test for alcohol consumption prior to driving. These devices measure blood alcohol concentration by breath and require drivers to pass a test before starting the vehicle and at a later re-testing during the drive. Relatively little work has been done to investigate the level of distraction potentially caused by these devices during re-testing. The current study compared the level of distraction of using an interlock device to single task driving and sending and receiving text messages while driving. Both the interlock device and texting resulted in small increases in lane deviation compared to single task baseline; however, participants looked away from the road significantly more often in the texting condition than the interlock condition. In terms of crashes and subjective reports of workload, the interlock device was higher than baseline but significantly lower than texting.