Mayhew D R, Donelson A C, Beirness D J, Simpson H M
Accid Anal Prev. 1986 Aug;18(4):273-87. doi: 10.1016/0001-4575(86)90042-4.
Deaths and injuries due to road-crash involvement are a major health and safety problem, especially among youth. Numerous factors can account for the overrepresentation of young drivers in road crashes and one of these--alcohol--has received renewed attention. This paper examines evidence pertaining to drinking and driving among youth to determine the extent to which alcohol has special significance for crashes involving young drivers. Three sets of studies are reviewed: those providing data on the extent of drinking and drinking-driving among youth, those that examine alcohol use among youth involved in road crashes and those that estimate the relative risk of a road crash for young drinking drivers. Findings show that frequent and heavy alcohol consumption among teenagers and young adults is not unusual, although they are less likely than older age groups to drive after drinking. Nonetheless, those young people who drive after drinking have a greater risk of crash involvement than older drinking drivers at all blood alcohol concentrations. One explanation of this finding assumes that young people are "inexperienced" with drinking and with driving. Limited behavioural research done to date supports some but not all assumptions implicit in this reasoning. There is also evidence in favour of an alternative hypothesis, namely, that the comparatively higher crash-risk among young drinking drivers is attributable to a subset of this group, those that engage in risky driving behaviour and who also happen to use alcohol. Further investigation into the personal and social characteristics of young people who drive after drinking would provide a sounder empirical basis for policies and programmes to reduce crash involvement among youth.
道路交通事故导致的伤亡是一个重大的健康与安全问题，在年轻人中尤为突出。诸多因素可解释为何年轻驾驶员在道路交通事故中占比过高，其中之一——酒精——已再度受到关注。本文审视了与年轻人酒驾相关的证据，以确定酒精在涉及年轻驾驶员的事故中具有特殊意义的程度。本文回顾了三组研究：那些提供年轻人饮酒及酒驾程度数据的研究、那些调查涉及道路交通事故的年轻人饮酒情况的研究，以及那些估算年轻酒驾者发生道路交通事故相对风险的研究。研究结果表明，青少年和年轻人频繁且大量饮酒的情况并不罕见，尽管他们比年长者酒后驾车的可能性更小。尽管如此，在所有血液酒精浓度水平下，那些酒后驾车的年轻人比年长的酒驾者发生事故的风险更高。这一发现的一种解释是，年轻人饮酒和驾车“经验不足”。迄今为止开展的有限行为研究支持了这一推理中隐含的部分而非全部假设。也有证据支持另一种假设，即年轻酒驾者中相对较高的事故风险可归因于该群体中的一部分人，即那些从事危险驾驶行为且恰好饮酒的人。对酒后驾车的年轻人的个人和社会特征展开进一步调查，将为减少年轻人事故发生率的政策和项目提供更坚实的实证依据。
