Patterns of Traffic Violations with Special Emphasis to DUI in Tennessee, USA H.N. Mookherjee Department of Sociology, Tennessee Technological University, Cookeville, Tennessee, U.S.A. Keywords Drinking-driving, DUI offences, DUI offenders, Traffic violations Abstract The primary objective of this paper is to study the driving patterns of the Tennessee DUI drivers, in order to understand alcohol-related crashes and fatalities in Tennessee. Data were obtained from the Tennessee Department of Highway Safety. Driving records were analyzed for drivers who received a citation for a driving violation in 1999, since they received their driving licenses. Out of a total 4,355,230 valid licensed drivers in 1999, 671,544 drivers were cited for traffic movement violations. These cited drivers were recorded to have a total of 989,848 traffic movement violations since they received their driving license. The analyses revealed that among these drivers 68% were males, 78% were whites, and about 15% (99,388) were cited for DUI offences. In addition to the typologies of the drinking-drivers traffic violations, this study explores the possibility of detecting indirectly the drivers driving skills and attitudes toward drinking-driving. Introduction Studies describing the characteristics of drinking-drivers and DUI offenders (1,3,4,7,12) reveal that unemployed, single, separated or divorced individuals, with a lower level of formal education and lower socioeconomic status are over-represented for drinking-driving and DUI offences. Most are males between the ages of 20-50. However, the results on lifestyle behavior studies of DUI offenders are not consistent. Some have indicated a relationship between higher rates of traffic movement violations and automobile crashes among crash involved and/or DUI offenders (2), but others have found no relationship between drinking-driving and auto accidents (6). Studies also identify a higher level of tobacco and drug use among the crash involved drivers (2,8), where the events occur mostly in relation to sports, bar attendance, spending time with friends and other social activities (10). Studies on motivations to drink and drive indicate that these activities are affected by sub-cultural norms, expectations, and values implemented by individuals (10). Some studies have also revealed that work-related stress might have been the pre-conditional factor in drinking-driving, which then leads to auto-crashes. Attitudinal studies, suggest that personal attitudes and decisions made well in advance of drinking-driving are highly predictive of impaired driving and crashes (5).
Most of the above studies are derived from the implied assumption that the impaired drivers are mostly involved in auto-accidents, and their impairments are directly related to their alcohol addiction. In short, impaired drivers are alcoholics. As a result, researchers have developed typologies of impaired drivers (11,12), where the delinquency group (11) or the hard core drinking-drivers (1,3,9) are found to be more likely to be involved in crashes or drinking-driving crashes. This delinquency group consists of mostly male drivers who are less likely to be heavy drinkers with less driving exposure. They exhibit the highest drinkingdriving problems, even more than those of the heavy drinkers (12:61). These findings suggest that the heavy drinkers are not always the problem drivers, who are involved in drinking-driving crashes. We believe that attitudes of the drivers are the important factor, which lead to their drinking-driving behavior and auto- crashes. We assume that the drivers driving attitudes and skills are reflected through the patterns of their driving movement violations. We will explore the patterns of driving violations of Tennessee DUI drivers, as a test case, to better understand the alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes and fatalities in Tennessee. Methods The data were collected from the Tennessee Department of Highway Safety. Driving records of the drivers who received a driving citation in 1999 for driving violation, as recorded, since they received their driving license, were analyzed. Driving violations were categorized according to (1) minor traffic violations, e.g., reckless driving, speeding, driving through red light, and related violations; (2) driving under the influence (DUI) and related violations; (3) accidents- property damage; (4) accidents- bodily injuries; and (5) fatal accidents. During 1999 in Tennessee, out of a total 4,355,230 valid licensed drivers, 671,544 drivers were cited for traffic movement violations. These cited drivers were recorded to have a total of 989,848 traffic movement violations since they received their driving license. Among these 671,544 cited drivers about 15% (99,388) were cited for drinking-driving (DUI) offences. Our main interest was to find out the patterns of driving offences among these DUI offenders. We analyzed the driving records of these DUI offenders (99,388), since they received their driving license. Results The analyses revealed that among these 99,388 DUI offenders in Tennessee during 1999, 78.5% were males and 77.4% were white adults. Comparatively, more non-white males than white males (93% vs. 74%), but more white females than non-white females (26% vs. 7%) were convicted for a DUI offence. However, regarding the total number of traffic violations in 1999, both whites and non-whites received almost equal proportions of citations in DUI and related offences (15% vs. 15%), accidents-bodily injuries (3% vs. 3%), and fatal accidents (0.2% vs. 0.1%), while in accidents-property damage whites (10%) received more citations than that of the non-whites (7%). Interestingly, for minor traffic violations non-whites (75%) received more citations in comparison to whites (72%). When considering the age of the DUI offenders, it was noted that the majority of the offenders were from the 21-29 age-group (38%), and next to that were the 30-39 age-group (33%). The DUI convictions were lower among the higher age-groups (40-49 =14%; 50-59 =5%; 60 & over =3%). However, the DUI related traffic violations among the age-group 21 & below (9%) were lower in comparison to that of the other age-groups.
Table 1 presents the different types of traffic violations committed by the 1999 DUI offenders, since they received their driving license. The severity of drinking-driving in connection with accidents is vividly revealed in this table (Table 1). The record shows that these 99,388 DUI offenders were cited with a total of 394,283 traffic violations. Among these DUI offenders, 59% were cited with one-dui offence, 21% were charged with two-dui offences, and the remaining 20% were multiple-dui offenders. The record also shows that the one-time DUI offenders were cited for a total of 152,630 traffic movement violations, indicating their somewhat reluctant driving pattern. On the other hand, these one-time DUI offenders had only about 38.4% of the total traffic violations in DUI offences, while the two-times or multiple-dui offenders had the most traffic violations in DUI offences (45% - 75%). Again, these one-time TABLE 1 DUI OFFENDERS NUMBER OF DUI OFFENCES BY ALL TRAFFIC VIOLATIONS Number DUI Minor traffic Accidents- Accidents- Fatal Total of DUI Offenders violations property bodily acci- violadamage injuries dents tions One 58,639 50,369 27,473 15,386 763 152,630 (38.4%) (33.0%) (18.0%) (10.0%) (0.5%) (100%) Two 21,103 25,016 14,015 6,404 79 87,720 (48.1%) (28.5%) (16.0%) ( 7.3%) (0.09%)(100%) Three 9,929 19,095 6,052 3,815 5 58,754 (50.7%) (32.5%) (10.3%) ( 6.5%) (0.01%)(100%) Four 4,261 8,817 3,198 1,987-31,046 (54.9%) (28.4%) (10.3%) ( 6.4%) (100%) Five 2,485 9,532 1,264 849-24,070 (51.6%) (39.6%) ( 5.3%) ( 3.5%) (100%) Six 1,391 7,154 1, 533 612-17,645 (47.2%) (40.5%) ( 8.7%) ( 3.5%) (100%) Seven 696 2,835-78 - 7,785 (62.6%) (36.4%) ( 1.0%) (100%) Eight 396 573 217 248-4,206 (75.3%) (13.6%) ( 5.2%) ( 5.9%) (100%) Nine & more 488 3,348 977 340 30 10,427 (55.0%) (32.1%) ( 9.4%) (3.3%) (0.3%) (100%) Total 99,388(182,219) 126,739 54,729 29,719 877 394,283 (Total DUI offences committed by DUI offenders are presented in italics)
drinking-driving offenders minor traffic violations were only 33% of their total traffic violations, the remaining 67% of the traffic violations were serious offences, including accidentsproperty damage, bodily injuries, fatal accidents, and drinking-driving. In addition, these onetime DUI offenders committed on an average 1.6 other traffic violations, while the repeat DUI offenders committed on an average more than 5.2 other traffic violations. These records of traffic violations not only reflect these drivers pattern of driving, they also suggest to take caution about the repeat DUI offenders. TABLE 2 DUI OFFENDERS AND THEIR TOTAL TRAFFIC VIOLATIONS Number Total # Number of traffic violations committed by DUI offenders Total # Mean # of DUI of DUI of viola- of violaoffences offenders (1) (2) (3) (4) (5) (6) (7 & +) tions tions One 58,639(59.0%)12,314 21,755 13,370 6,216 2,580 1,114 1,290 152,630 2.6 (100) (21.0) (37.1) (22.8) (10.6) ( 4.4) ( 1.9) ( 2.2) Two 21,103(21.2%) 3,482 5,529 5,529 2,912 1,583 2,068 87,720 4.2 (100) (16.5) (26.2) (26.2) (13.8) ( 7.5) ( 9.8) Three 9,929(10.0%) 1,708 1,857 1.857 933 3,574 58,754 5.9 (100) (17.2) (18.7) (18.7) ( 9.4) (36.0) Four 4,261( 4.3%) 230 835 1,065 2,131 31,046 7.3 (100) ( 5.4) (19.6) (25.0) (50.0) Five 2,485( 2.5%) 152 226 2,107 24,070 9.7 (100) ( 6.1) ( 9.1) (84.8) Six 1,391( 1.4%) 1,391 17,645 12.7 (100) (100) Seven 696( 0.7%) 696 7,785 11.2 (100) (100) Eight & 884( 0.9%) 884 14,633 16.6 more (100) (100) Total 99,388(100%) 12,314 25,237 20,607 13,832 8,336 4,921 14,141 394,283 4.0 (100) (12.4) (25.4) (20.7) (13.9) ( 8.4) ( 5.0) ( 14.2) (Percentages are presented in parentheses and in italics.) Table 2 presents the total number of traffic violations committed by the 1999 DUI offenders. Among all these DUI offenders (99,388) about 59% were first-time DUI offenders, and their total traffic violations numbered 152,630, which is an average of 2.6 traffic violations committed per offender until 1999. Data revealed that the convicted second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth-time DUI offenders, on an average, were involved in 4, 6, 7, 10, and 13 traffic
violations per person, respectively. The convicted eighth-time or more DUI offenders were involved in 14,633 or an average of 17 traffic violations per person, including the eight or more DUI offences. The data further indicated that among the 58.639 first-time DUI offenders, 12,314 were involved only in DUI offence, where the remaining 48,325 were involved in one DUI offence each plus other traffic violations for a total of 140,316 traffic violations. Similarly, among the 21,103 second-time DUI offenders, 3,482 were convicted of two-dui offences each, the remaining 17,621 offenders being involved in 80,756 traffic violations including their 2-times DUI offences. In other words, the multiple DUI offenders (40,749) committed a total of 206,269 traffic violations in addition to their DUI offences. In comparison, it is clear that where the convicted first-time DUI offenders, on an average, were involved 2.6 times in traffic violations, the multiple DUI offenders were, on an average, involved 5.9 times in traffic violations. Therefore, it can be concluded that these multiple DUI offenders were not only highly involved in traffic violations, but their driving behavior were also highly dangerous for themselves as well as for their communities. Discussion Results of this study of convicted drinking-drivers in Tennessee coincide with earlier findings characterizing the alarming situation of the DUI offenders, especially the multiple-dui offenders (1-3,9,11,12). It should be noted that the DUI offences committed (182,219) by these convicted drinking-drivers were 46% of their total traffic violations (394,283) until 1999. Although the number of fatal accidents was not remarkably high, the accidents involved in property damage and bodily injuries (85,324) were accounted for about 22% of the total traffic violations committed by these DUI offenders. At the same time, minor traffic violations were not negligible, which made up about 32% of all traffic violations. Although we do not have the information about the pre-conditional factors in drinkingdriving, and attitudes of these DUI offenders, the pattern of their traffic violations draw a clear picture of their negligent driving behavior, which is especially true for the multiple-dui offenders. The pattern of traffic violations further identifies the risk pattern of this DUI population. It is clear that whether it is one-time DUI offender or multiple-dui offender, none of them could drive without committing any traffic violations. All of the DUI offenders were high risk drinking-drivers, but the multiple-dui offenders were the highest risk drinking-drivers. Hence, it can be concluded that there are no experienced DUI drivers, who can drive safely after being impaired by alcohol and/or other drug intake. It is true that this study was confined to Tennessee DUI drivers of 1999, so the implications of the results will be limited. However, it will not be unwise to conclude, based on these results, that the DUI offenders should not be treated lightly; they should be considered with more caution. The data indicated that on average the higher the number of DUI offences committed, the higher the number of total traffic violations committed per person. On the other hand, it can be suggested that these DUI offenders appear to be dangerous drivers, who did not show any responsibility to traffic regulations and/or human safety. Some programs should be developed to control their drinking-driving.
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