Convicted impaired drivers and high-risk drivers: how similar are they?

The present study was a partial replication of one by D.M. Donovan (1980). Donovan's results indicated that convicted impaired drivers (DWIs) and high-risk drivers were overlapping populations with shared deviant characteristics. The present study, like Donovan's, compared three types of drivers: DWI, high-risk (either high-accident or high-violation) and general population control. Unlike Donovan, the present study attempted to match the age and sex distributions of the groups. Data were obtained from personal interviews and driver records. The DWI group was the most deviant on behavioral and personality measures and had more accidents and traffic convictions than did controls. High-risk drivers were more deviant than controls on several measures but the two groups were quite similar in other respects. The results suggest that some of the deviance attributed to high-risk drivers by Donovan may have been exaggerated by confounding with age. Secondly, the heterogeneity within the DWI and high-risk driving populations appears to outweigh their differences.