Effect of moderated doses of alcohol on behavior of drivers confronted to simulated scenarios of accident

Epidemiological studies showed that alcohol is a major cause of mortal accidents, in particular at night and at week end, and that the risk of accident is directly linked to the rate of alcohol in the blood. As there is lack of behavioral measures that could be used to define a dangerous threshold for driving after taking licit or illicit drugs, we made an alcohol calibration study and simulated urban and car following scenarios of driving. The objective was to obtain reference values of impaired behavior. Sixteen participants participated to four experimental sessions. They drunk a beverage to obtain 0, 0.3, 0.5, or 0.8 g of alcohol per litre of blood (BAC), then were submitted to urban and car following simulated situations. We analyzed the number of collision and different driving parameters as a function of BAC. Such calibrations could be very useful with respect to the legislations in the European countries, Pros and Cons for zero-tolerance regulations or for regulations based on the degree of impairment.