Development and Evaluation of a Risk Assessment Strategy for Medically Impaired Drivers. Volume 8. An Evaluation of the California Drunk Driving Countermeasure System

摘要

The primary objectives of the project were to develop and evaluate a risk assessment strategy for medically impaired drivers. The strategy developed involved consideration of an explicit set of objective and subjective risk factors in medical condition cases, and was implemented through the use of a 'probable risk checklist'. The checklist was pilot tested on 3,722 medical cases in one of four driver improvement regions in California from February 22, 1982 through June 25, 1982. Analysis of the pilot study data showed that: (1) the best predictor of departmental estimates of risk and licensing actions in medical cases was the risk factor 'lack of insight', which is a subjective measure of the driver safety referee's (DSR) clinical impression of the driver; (2) there generally appears to be an appropriate and rational relationship between prior driver record, estimated risk, and licensing actions, except for drivers with alcohol-related medical conditions; and (3) the reactions of DSRs to the probable risk checklist were generally negative. Because of funding limitations, additional planned analyses were not completed. Due to the criticality of these analyses for departmental policy and procedural recommendations, it was recommended that the additional analyses subsequently be completed.