The Problem of Drunken and Rash Driving

Alcohol is mainly formed by sugar fermentation in food. Individuals information processing skills will be impaired because consumption of alcohol leads to slowing down of functionality of the brain. Both Peripheral and Central nervous system of a person will be badly effected due intake of alcohol. Alcohol also negatively effects the functioning of hypothalamus in brain because of which important functions of the body such as heart rate, temperature of the body and blood pressure etc. Other effects of alcohol consumption also include memory loss, poor judgment, lack of concentration, blurred vision etc. In today’s world there happens to occur lot of road accidents due to drunken and rash driving. Drunken driving is already a serious problem, which is likely to be added as one of the most noteworthy problems in the near prospect. Checking whether the driver has consumed alcohol or not is quite important in order to provide proper work and road safety. Several studies are made on both physiological and psychological states of the driver. With the increase in the technology in today’s world lead to the development of new devices. The American Automobile Association Foundation for Traffic Safety (AAA FTS) has classified the various stages of inattention of the driver while driving which are:

1. attentive;
2. distracted;
3. looked but did not see;
4. sleepy;
5. unknown.

Driving is a complex activity that requires multi -level skills. Most of our driving skill will be improved by experience. Many people lost and even losing their lives because of this distracted, drunken and rash driving due to lack of proper system.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) conducted a survey over 12 months with 241 drivers. As per that report around 25% of the total road accidents are mainly due to inattention of the driver. From the 78% of the total accidents that came up 65% can be avoided if the driver had properly paid his attention towards the road.

From the official reports of Beijing, the traffic accidents are mainly due to drivers, vehicle, road and weather and out of which accidents caused due to driver is the major factor, as this is the reason for 95% of the road accidents. Hence it is quite very important to detect the abnormal driving by considering various factors and improve the traffic safety. In general, we can divide the factors related to behavior of driving into two groups. Firstly, variables determining physiological behavior of the driver which may include heart rate, age, gender etc. and different environmental factors like traffic and weather conditions in that area. Secondly, different vehicle related factors such as speed, throttle plate position etc. along with driver related information such as intake of alcohol, drowsiness, recklessness etc.

It is a known fact that most of the people use private transport instead of public transport (mainly in India). Out of 48%, only 18% people use public transport and the remaining 30% use their own transport that is private vehicles. According to a survey conducted in India by Transport research wing, the percentage occurrence of accidents has been increased by 2.5% in one year. As per the report every day around 1374 deaths occur due to road accidents. Among those 1374 deaths, 54.1% are in between the age of 15-34 years. 52 billion US dollars is lost by India every year due to these road accidents. If proper care is taken regarding drunken drive, High beam of upfront vehicles, seat belt, drowsiness of the driver etc. then 65% of the total road accidents can be reduced in India.70% of the total human loss on roads due to traffic accidents are mainly due to drunken driving and among this about 44% to 67% occur in small cities. Out of 56 accidents 14-15 deaths occur mainly because of not putting the seat beat on. This is as per the recent report of World Health Organization (WHO). The driver’s behavior as mentioned above (such as alcohol consumption, drowsiness and recklessness) are the major cause of these fatal accidents on road which not only effect the co drivers but also effect pedestrians sometimes and may even cause severe loss of both public and private property along with loss of valuable lives. When the driver takes alcohol sudden accelerating and decelerating will be done with a delayed response which determines a poor control of speed of the vehicle. The second factor drowsiness is mainly caused due to sleepiness of the driver but without alcohol consumption at all. Even the driver with drowsiness will not be able to control the vehicle properly like the drunken driver as his case also involves sudden rise and fall of the speed of the vehicle. The third case where the driver is reckless but is awake may result in sudden increase in the speed of the vehicle crossing speed limits and this may be because driver might be under some emotional stress.

Apart from the above-mentioned factors one more reason for the occurrence of fatal accidents on road is mainly due to distraction of the driver. For example, when the driver is on the phone he will not be able to provide his complete attention to the road that may cause significant distraction and the response time of the driver is badly affected because of this. Checking if the driver has consumed alcohol or not can be done indirectly by several ways as blood analysis, urine analysis, saliva analysis, hair analysis and breath analysis.