University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses

Public Policy And Dysfunctional Administrative Mechanisms: The Example Of drunk Drivers And Traffic Accidents

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Public Policy And Dysfunctional Administrative Mechanisms: The Example Of drunk Drivers And Traffic Accidents

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Content PUBLIC POLICY AND DYSFUNCTIONAL ADMINISTRATIVE MECHANISMS The Example of Drunk Drivers and Traffic Accidents by Chang Kun Hyun A Dissertation Presented to the FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY (Public Administration) August 1971 HYUN, Chang Kun, 1930- PUBLIC POLICY AND DYSFUNCTIONAL ADMINISTRATIVE MECHANISMS: . THE EXAMPLE OF DRUNK DRIVERS AND . TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS. University of Southern California, Ph.D., 1971 Political Science, public administration University Microfilms, A X E R O X Com pany, Ann Arbor, Michigan UNIVERSITY O F SO U TH ER N CALIFORNIA THE GRADUATE SCHOOL UNIVERSITY PARK LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 9 0 0 0 7 This dissertation, 'written by Chang Kun Hyun under the direction of hh$..... Dissertation Com mittee, and approved by all its members, has been presented to and accepted by The Gradu ate School, in partial fulfillment of require ments of the degree of D O C T O R OF P H IL O S O P H Y 'Tyicujo t Dean ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ; | The writer wishes to extend his sincerest apprecia- j ! I j tion to Professor A. W. McEachern, Chairman of his Dis- i ) I | | j sertation Committee, for continual and profound guidance | | in developing this dissertation, and for providing an opportunity to engage in research projects for four years under his directorship. ; i The writer is especially indebted to Professor ! I Harvey Adelman from whom he has gained invaluable assis- j ; tance in enriching the quality of his thinking. He owes special thanks also to Professor Burt Nanus for useful ! i : discussions contributing to a better understanding of the problems of this dissertation. | This dissertation would have been impossible without j ■ j ; the five years of graduate study in public administration j | | | in which the writer received inestimable insight and ex- I perience from both faculty and colleagues in the School ! of Public Administration of the University of Southern California. Thanks are extended to all of them. The writer is also grateful to Morgan Thomas of the Drinking Driver and Traffic Safety Project who made avai lable the data runs for analysis. Lastly, the writer cannot forget to thank his wife, Hyo Hyong, for her perseverance and encouragement through out the entire voyage of his graduate study. _____^ _______________________ ii_______________________ _______ TABLE OF CONTENTS Page j ACKNOWLEDGMENTS....................................... ii LIST OF TABLES.......................................... V Chapter I. INTRODUCTION 1 ; i Introduction 1 j Purpose of Study 3 ; Summary 4 II. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROBLEM AREA.............6 \ Introduction , • 6 Public Policy Analysis 6 Drunk Drivers and Traffic Accidents 13 The Misuse and Manageability of Alcohol 17 Administrative Responses 21 III. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE ON SOCIAL STRESS ! AND ACCIDENTS.................... 29 j Introduction 29 Social Stress and Accidents 32 Summary 37 IV. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE ............................... 39 Introduction 39 Disorganization Process in Perspective 40 Summary 44 V. RESEARCH PROCEDURES...........................45 Introduction 45 Sample Selection 45 Hypotheses 46 Operational Definitions 47 Measurement Instruments 49 Data Collection Procedures 61 Statistical Procedures 62 Summary 63 Page ! Chapter VI. FINDINGS...................................... 64 Introduction 64 Traffic Accidents 65 Drinking Patterns 67 Categories of Stress 69 Psycho-Somatic Stress 73 Poverty Stress 79 Punitive Stress 82 Accident-Involved versus Accident-Free Drivers 84 Sickness 84 Negative Self-Concept 86 Lack of Tolerance for Ambiguity 86 Status Inconsistency 89 Summary 91 VII. DISCUSSION - POLICY AND ADMINISTRATION. . . 92 Introduction 92 Policy Change 92 Decriminalization of Drunk Driving Offenses 95 Elimination of Minor Cases 98 Coordination of Alcoholic Institutions 99 Coping with Psycho-Somatic Stress 100 Coping with Poverty and Punitive Stress 102 Strategic Administrative Approaches 105 Summary 108 VIII. CONCLUSION...................................109 REFERENCES........................................... 112 LIST OF TABLES Number of Accidents of Drunk Driver and General Driver Samples, Los Angeles County, 1970........................... Drinking Patterns of Drunk Driver and General Driver Samples Excluding Those Who Do Not Drink, Los Angeles County, 1970........................... Drinking Patterns and Accident Involve ment of Drunk Driver and General Driver Samples Excluding Those Who Do Not Drink, Los Angeles County, 1970 . . . . Factor Loadings of 21 Variables on Three Factors, Los Angeles County, 1970................................... Psycho-Somatic Stress and Accident- Involved and Accident-Free Drivers in a Drunk Driver Sample, Los Angeles County, 1970........................... Psycho-Somatic Stress and Accident- Involved and Accident-Free Drivers in a General Driver Sample, Los Angeles County, 1970........................... Psycho-Somatic Stress and Drunk Drivers and General Drivers in an Accident- Involved Driver Sample, Los Angeles County, 1970........................... Psycho-Somatic Stress and Drunk Drivers and General Drivers in an Accident- Free Driver Sample, Los Angeles County, 1970................................... ! Page j i | Tables 9. Poverty Stress and Drunk Drivers and General Drivers in an Accident- Free Driver Sample, Los Angeles County, 1970 ................................ 80 10. Punitive Stress and Drunk Drivers and General Drivers in an Accident- Free Driver Sample, Los Angeles County, 1970................................ 83 11. Sickness and Accident-Involved Drivers and Accident-Free Drivers, Los Angeles , County, 1970.................. 85 12. Negative Self-Concept and Accident- Involved Drivers and Accident-Free Drivers, Los Angeles County, 1970 ........ 87 13. Lack of Tolerance for Ambiguity and Accident-Involved Drivers and Accident-Free Drivers, Los Angeles County, 1970............. 88 14. Status Inconsistency and Accident- Involved Drivers and Accident-Free Drivers, Los Angeles County, 1970 ........ 90 CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Introduction Public policy with respect to the management of serious problems often has a way of evading the issues i underlying the problems, and focussing instead on more I readily visible, but perhaps unrelated problems. | i : | Traffic accidents are representative of serious problems I : j of this kind. The attention given to drinking drivers | on the assumption that they are responsible for a high j proportion of accidents may have the effect of dissipa- j ting public resources and the energy of enforcement j i | agencies with little effect on the fundamental problem. ; This dissertation examined the relationship between | ! drinking and driving and traffic accidents with a view | | to providing suggestions with respect to policies that might have a more direct effect on traffic accidents. Urban areas have been the scene of phenomenal growth in the past few decades and have varieties of problems surpassing any previously encountered in human experience. In some, such as Los Angeles County, urban growth has resulted in problems for an ever-increasing number of individuals who have poor health, poor educa tion, unemployment, and criminality. At the same time, 1___________________________________ I this urban growth has led to problems of public trans- i i ! portation unrivaled in complexity. While it is a truism that man spends most of his active waking hours in orga nizations , it is very easy to overlook the fact that man also spends generally one fifth to a quarter of his active I waking hours on roads, especially in post-industrial ! ! societies (Bell, 1967). In Los Angeles County, nearly everyone drives. The automobile has become a necessary instrument for urban living. Driving an automobile requires skills that I enable man to move from one location to another. The changing of locations is often associated with drinking. i And, according to conventional assumptions, drinking and | I driving account for a very high proportion of highway j crashes. Why do accidents occur? According to another view, traffic accidents are unconsciously intended events, and a primary reason for their occurrence is management failure, or an inability to coordinate different parts of the very complex transportation process on which urban man depends. From this point of view, it is naive to assume that drunk drivers are the primary cause. Despite stringent controls on and severe penalties for drunk drivers, traffic accidents are net reduced. Instead, this approach to the drunk drivers has created serious | problems for judicial administration, which is a "system" that is in serious straits and which may collapse by the year 2000 (McEachern, et al., 1970) unless remedial measures "beyond politics" are devised which are based upon knowledge. I | Purpose of Study ' This study is concerned with the relationships ; between convicted drunk drivers and traffic accidents. ; The purposes of this study are (1) to present an analysis , of one urban problem in the management of traffic affairs I in which the administrative approaches that are utilized I result in a high probability that major traffic accidents | will persist, (2) to examine certain attributes of indi- I vidual motorists involved in these accidents, and (3) to | develop "more rational rationality" (Gross, 1971) of policies and administrative approaches that are effective in reducing the problem. A basic underlying intention in developing "more rational rationality" of policies and administrative approaches lies in the fact that many drunk drivers are socially forgotten men. Their contribution to the traffic accident problem may be less serious than the law and their treatment under the law assumes. Drunk drivers could be treated by other than law enforcement agencies and courts which would be relieved from the present ! overload of apprehending and prosecuting drunk drivers. | Thus, surplus judicial and law enforcement manpower could i i then be diverted to other tasks and perhaps contribute to a significant reduction in crime rates. ! Summary . Few will deny that a drunk driver is a dangerous : driver on the highways. Nor would many deny that the drunk driver is not the only driver causing hazards and threats to health and life. Problems associated with the drunk drivers are not ! so serious in less urbanized cultures as there are only | a few privileged persons who drive. However, in highly | urbanized cultures such as Los Angeles County, with a i [ | population of 7 million people of whom almost every adult is a driver and where about three quarters of the adult population indulge in drinking, the problem of controlling drinking and driving becomes really acute. Scientific studies in laboratory settings since Holcomb in 1°38 (Holcomb, 1938) have repeatedly shown that drinking impairs driving ability. Paradoxically, scientific evidence in real highway-driving settings has also repeatedly shown that drivers who have not been drinking account for a much greater proportion of traffic accidents than do drinking drivers. j i ! i ! The occurrence of traffic accidents is a management | failure. Public traffic policy should require effective decision-making to reduce traffic accident occurrences. j It should require more rational rationality in under standing an emerging "psycho-somatic" culture. It should require "beyond the politics" the role of knowledgeable men (Lane, 1966) working in knowledge industries (Drucker,! 1968). This dissertation focuses on one urban problem, public transportation, in which administrative and judi cial responses increase the probability of the problems ; j associated with drunk drivers, and yet do not reduce the j number of traffic accidents. j j CHAPTER II j SIGNIFICANCE OF THE PROBLEM AREA Introduction | This chapter deals with the major problem areas confronting highway administration in Los Angeles County, i in which public traffic policy is shockingly retarded in utilizing scientific and behavioral technology. The j management of drunk drivers is made up of repressive j : j punitive approaches and has little to do with reducing highway crashes. Studies of the misuse and manageabi- i lity of alcohol generally have been carried out in labo- 1 i ratories, under conditions often irrelevant to the social j context in which drinking occurs. Administrative appro- | I aches by law enforcement agencies, traffic courts, and I departments of motor vehicles are apparently concerned primarily with the efficiency of their operations in the maintenance of large complex organizations. Public Policy Analysis Public policy is a structure or confluence of values and behavior involving a governmental prescrip tion in which a choice of action between and among identifiable valued alternatives can be made. Choice of action for the problem of reducing traffic accidents must be made under uncertainty because thousands of 6-------------------------------- j individual motorists behave independently and differently j on public highways. The valued alternatives are identi- j t ! fied through reciprocal relationships between maximizing utility and understanding of facts. These alternatives, available at the beginning of America, were middle class I i values in which the Protestant ethic was the basic j ; j driving force. This force took the form of present j j public policymaking functions and structures in such a i manner as to rationalize ends and means through an indus- | trious, persistent, and hard working process to climb up hierarchical ladders of economic, social, political, and cultural dominance. Rationalization of ends and means is simply an ! j j attempt to reduce unpleasant consequences triggered by j | j j an uncertain world of reality or extra-rational phenomena . i j As a result, this rationalization represented a man's positivistic and reductionistic move which was only a partial endeavor in comprehending the human condition. This partial endeavor is often inevitable due to multiple levels of reality in which human ignorance, playing a major part, leads to a series of accidents. Because of this inherent limitation in which the condition of a choice of action has largely been uncertain and under standing of facts and values has been either low or parochial, the present public policymaking responses at best are incremental (Lindblom, 1965) , directed toward ! | j maintenance of the status quo, and ultimately end in a i I | j state of bureaucratic inertia. ] | In respect to the management of traffic accident i I ! phenomena, incremental choices of action have had little I | causal relationships with the alleviation of traffic j accidents in the United States. Incremental choice of | action assumes that policy change is made gradually on the basis of knowledge of the past, and the only way to I proceed is to continue in the same direction. Thus, the j influence of incrementalism has led to the conclusion ; that alcohol was a major precipitating factor leading to I traffic accidents early in this century. Therefore, j ' I | control of alcohol as a major policy response was consi- j i I ! | dered a logical prescription. This conclusion resulted j i in the emergence of innumerable public and private orga nizations concerned with its control. Subsequently, vast number of research papers, journals, and other technical publications related to the mosaic world of alcoholism have appeared. The appearance of these publications has had a direct causal linkage with incremental annual budget allocations (Wildavsky, 196 4). The annual budget allocations, while contributing to the stabilization of organizations on the one hand, have displayed a social drama on the other that has fostered what Robert Merton 9 (Merton, 1968) has described as substantial rationality j I in elaborating, justifying, and articulating researchers' interests and values. Often researchers have acted irrespective of whether or not their positions are functionally rational in reducing the problems associated with actual traffic i accident phenomena. Therefore, the present state of ; traffic management is such that the number of serious traffic accidents is at an all time high, and the total number of people killed or injured on highways is fanta stically greater than the total number of all military personnel killed or wounded in all wars since the nation's! independence (Accident Facts, 1966). According to Dror, the American-wisdom-of-generationsj and incremental change arguments are sleeping pills (Dror,j 1968). Since the incremental approach to policymaking has a basic assumption that social change can be made only gradually by slow evolution of policies with cautious incremental moves, it is merely a simplified description of a policymaking complex that does not properly explain the likely causes of disruptive possibilities in man's environment. Los Angeles is said to be the first example of the post-industrialization and post-urban agglomera tion in which rapid social change is a symptom (Boulding, 1968). It is, therefore, totally possible that traffic 10 I I situations will become so intolerable that man will have I : to give up driving. i Another conception of public policymaking that has evolved along with incrementalism is Simon's satisficing j model (Simon, 1957). The satisficing approach to choice I claims that a search for alternatives is based upon immediate policymaking experiences in the past and eva luates expected payoffs in terms of satisfactory quality. | If the expected payoffs produced by an alternative are "good enough," there will be no search for additional i alternatives that would have high payoffs. The satis factory choice of action is often superficial in the sense that it does not recognize man's creative talent | and there are often contextually unique events character- | ; ized by the rapid change taking place in highly urbanized i | societies. Satisficing tends to lead one to assume that ! j a certain ratio of traffic accident occurrences is nece ssary for the healthy maintenance of socio-economic- political systems. The traffic situation has not been looked at as a total qualitative involvement of individual motorists over a span of time. Man naively accepts as a satisfactory policy response that a drunk driver is a « killer, without searching*for additional alternatives that have as their premise that other drivers are equally killers. 11 i ; Thus, both the incremental and the satisficing ! i approaches to public policy choice strangely manifest I themselves as maintainers of whatever human mechanisms have previously been instituted. Consequently, policy makers who merely adopt incremental or satisficing I approaches are excluding other values that may contribute ‘ toward a reduction of traffic accidents. I Following the incremental and satisficing approaches , j I there appeared other models such as Gore1s heuristic i ; model (Gore, 1964) in which a trial-error approach to I j alternative choice of action is a rule. Public policy ; response in this respect does not only contain a strong i I ; component of the personality of the policymakers involved,j | but it is extremely difficult to reduce errors to a mini- j i i j mum. A trial-error approach is a very expensive enter- ! prise and yet there is no certain approach especially when rapid change is constantly taking place. Investi gation of traffic accidents in terms of this trial-error method of policy definition results in procedures which mirror the personality of the policymaker plus a variety of errors, is too risky for the simple reason that man's lives are at stake. Consequently, a variety of administrative mechanisms resulting from policies produced through incrementalism, satisficism, and heuristicism have provided a pluralistic 12 | conglomeration as a mode of a societal adaptation. The ! pluralistic conglomeration has brought forth Morris Cohen's term "polarization" of certain influential interest groups to sustain their gravitational forces of inherent dominant nature over the capitalistic system i ; developed in the United States. During recent decades, the polarization process (Lowi, 1969; Megay, 1970) has seriously been questioned | in terms of its utility for the essential process of how the American system of values and beliefs are realized. I The principal reason for raising such a question was in I ; part due to a rapid emergence of unpolarized social issues i I stemming from the complex interaction produced by the i i j processes of urbanization and urban growth phenomena. | The unpolarized social issues are publicly unrecognized i | issues resulting from situations such as our present | understanding that the state of traffic accident events is one of individual incidences on the highways rather than one of collective organized incidences. Due to the lack of the latter interpretation of traffic accidents, this phenomenon has not explicitly been identified as one of the serious social issues of our time. In this regard, the administration of traffic accident events have neither any powerful organized interest groups nor any pressure groups that might bring about a construe- ; 13 tive action program in reducing traffic accident disa sters . Drunk Drivers and Traffic Accidents Past research on the relationships between drunk drivers and traffic accidents has led in many cases, to j ! findings which had few implications for administrative j action to reduce traffic accidents on the highways. Individual drivers had not been looked at in a cohesive and systematic way from a muiti-disciplinary vantage point. A number of studies suggest that the drunk driver population is over-representative of the lower socio economic class (Pittman and Snyder, 1962), for example. These studies seem to be in consensus in finding a high I | proportion of the drinking-driving population at the bottom of the socio-economic ladder. These drivers are isolated, uprooted, unattended, disorganized, demoralized, and homeless (Zax, 1967) . However, these studies have not related drunk driving with traffic accidents. Despite the fact that urbanization and urban growth have survived through the eras of industrial and urban revolutions, they contain a two-edged sword. First, urbanization and urban growth have made America the most affluent nation in the world. Second, despite this achievement, it must nevertheless be recognized that 14 j there is poverty in the midst of affluence with many ; disorganized individuals who remain outside of the main I stream of the active American society (Etzioni, 1968). i j The cluster of these people represents those individuals who are driven out as quoted by the famous dictum, "to the victor belongs the spoils," but perhaps to the loser belongs the stress. These people continue to experience I the stress which accompanies a state of sickness, poor education, unemployment, and criminal activities. As in other areas, these individuals are repeatedly ! reported to be over-represented in highway crash popu lations . Some of the reasons which bring forth this situation can be readily explained from the perspective ■ of geo-economics in which geographical as well as econo mic conditions in Los Angeles County compel people to drive continuously. The geographical diversity and | recent population increases further add to a Piccaso- t like traffic picture. Furthermore, there is no adequate transportation system by which people can travel in conveyances other than automobiles. Individuals who fail to cope with these environmental stresses have serious social problems. There are some 1,200 or 1,500 drunk driving arrests every month in Los Angeles County alone (Clifton, 1964). We do not now know the proportion of traffic accidents 15 caused by this population. Nor do we know which of the i I | drunk drivers need medical attention, which need marital ; ■ • j ! counseling, which need change in their organizational I environment, which need judicial disposition, and which need some other treatment to help them manage environ mental stresses, to become productive citizens in their communities. This complex diagnostic problem suggests that the simplistic assumption that intoxication alone constitutes a sufficient condition for traffic accidents needs to be i re-examined. It is possible that some drunk drivers may not be dangerous at all in terms of getting involved in major traffic accidents. But, because of the simplistic assumption, all of the drinking drivers, regardless of 1 , | who they are, have always been referred to and treated j by law enforcement agencies and courts as criminals. An investigation of the fatal drinking accidents in Los Angeles County during the period of January 1966 to June 1968 indicated that only 18 percent had been drunk drivers (Thomas, 1970). Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department reported that there were approxi mately 8,000 arrests for drunk driving in 1970 of which 15 percent were involved in traffic accidents (Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, 1970). If drunk drivers are dangerous or hazardous on the highways, then the 16 ' representation of these drunk drivers in traffic accident j events should be proportionately higher. But only 10 ! | percent of the drivers had records of drunk driving in i ! the fatal traffic accident study in Los Angeles County | : conducted by Thomas (Thomas, 1970). ! In examining the drunk driver population, we can ! i j ! consider two classes or groups; those who have had acci- | dents and those who are accident-free. Some of these ; drivers who are unable to manage social stresses and are ■ unable to resolve them may have a high probability of i getting involved in accidents when they drink and drive simultaneously. However, other drivers who are able to i manage and resolve social stresses through meaningful j interactions with other individuals, families, and social t j | institutions, may have a low probability of getting i ! ! involved in highway crashes despite the fact that they both drink and drive. What then is a social stress? It is defined as a condition of tension or anxiety which occurs within an individual as a response to one or more stressful events. What is important in this context for operationalization is proper identification of a number1 of stressful events that may have significant relationships with occurrences of major traffic accidents upon which this study is focused. A scoreboard of tragedy highlights the growing seriousness of motor vehicle accidents in the United i i States. In 1965 alone, costs involved in these accidents reached 8.9 billion dollars (Rouse, 1967). There is, of course, no shortage of suggestions for the solution of the highway death toll problem. One such suggestion was I ! that the drunk drivers involved in traffic accidents need more severe punishment but those not involved in any traffic accident should be left alone, irrespective of their drinking (Cohen, et al., 1958). If so, would severe punishment solve the problem associated with the highway tolls? This suggestion is only a partial step toward a solution of traffic accidents and required a ! careful and analytical examination of the complex problem i of alcoholism. | ! i The Misuse and Manageability of Alcohol j The problem of alcoholism had been apparent since the earliest recorded history of mankind. The Bible has 71 references to the use of alcoholic beverages. About 2225 B. C., the Babylonian Code of Hammurabi devoted several sections to regulations on the sale of alcoholic beverages to control intemperate use. Furthermore, in 3000 years of recorded Chinese history, laws for the control of drinking were enacted, and repealed, at least 18 41 times. Through the centuries alcoholism has been ; i ; : considered a moral weakness, and lately it is regarded as ! an illness (Auerback, 1959) . ! A Cambridge University professor said, "Criminolo- i gists cannot solve the problem of crime: they should , i accept that crime is, to a large extent, inevitable, that j it is an integral part of our society" (Fox and Fox, i 1963). Perhaps the same is true of alcoholism. One of the problems with which every physician is confronted in his practice is that of alcoholism, and it has been re peatedly asserted that there is no known cure for it (Block, 1966). The insolubility of alcoholism per se has ! been accepted by American society. Because of the inso- j lubility of alcoholism, the focus has been directed to- j ! ward the misuse of drinking. Consequently, the efforts | | I ; i to relate to social institutions such as family, group, j ! j i ! community, and public organizations have inspired the creation of a number of collective efforts for research, journals for communicating information between workers, and clinics and hospitals for care of its victims. Early in 1955, according to the Jellinek Estimation Formula, California showed nearly 600,000 alcoholics with or without complications or one in every 14 adults in the state, and this is the highest rate in the nation (Auerback, 1959) . 19 In the cities of Oakland and Los Angeles, one third of the persons arrested for drunkenness in 1962 were arrested more than once and accounted for two thirds | of all drunkenness arrests (Mendelson, 1966). Roughly ! 6 percent of American adults are alcoholics or problem drinkers, and yet American law persists in treating even peaceful alcoholics as criminals rather than sick people. Since the general consensus has been that j j i alcohol is a major villain, the systems of law are at i ; ! a loss as to how to control human beings except by brute force. And the limits of that approach are obvious1 . : i I The motivation for drinking can be discussed either | in terms of the fulfillment of individual needs or as a { i result of social influences, depending on the philoso- i i j i j I phic and disciplinary position of the person leading i I the discussion. Drinking is a complex, learned indivi dual behavior which, at any one time, seems to reflect a person's early training, his momentary needs, his long term psychological and/or somatic needs, and the social context in which he finds himself, or into which he has thrust himself. Therefore, investigating individual life patterns in relation to social institutional settings in terms of patterns of behavior in managing social stresses will probably be more meaningful. ‘ i i 20 The misuse of alcohol is likely to occur when t s j ! ; individuals lack adaptive response capability in coping f | with stress. From this point of view, it is possible I that societal constraints could be central. Therefore, i | changes in social institutional arrangements to fit the | needs of individuals would seem to be a first prerequi- j site for reducing stress for highway safety. Subsequent policymaking and administrative responses could be based on knowledge obtained from analyses of such individual- institutional relationships. A number of previous studies of traffic accidents : persistently claim the control of alcohol to be one nece- j I ssary step toward the solution of the problem. The , Prohibition Act of the early 20' s was a disastrous ! failure. Legislative efforts to curb drunk driving | appeared thereafter but have also proved to be highly ineffective. Why? Because the manageability of alcohol lies neither in its eradication, nor in punishment, but in providing a salutary human condition in which man will gradually control alcohol so that it will have a minimal disruptive effect. The "drunk" problems are not the problems of alcohol, but the problems of man, who misuses it. It becomes imperative, from the standpoint of public administration, to find the relationships between one class of drinkers who are dangerous on the highways and 21 i the other class of drinkers who are not dangerous. \ ; Administrative Responses j Questions about the causes of traffic accidents are easy to raise but extremely difficult to answer. The questions are easy to raise because people observe j I an increasing number of traffic accidents in which | drivers lose their lives and cause other people to die. j The answer is difficult because traffic accidents are unplanned and unwanted events arising out of the complex interaction of thousands of individual drivers and different highway situations. What is the state of knowledge about traffic accidents? How can that know- | ledge be utilized to develop effective policies so that i administrative mechanisms exist, not for the sake of i j ! I existence, but for engaging in functional administration j I to reduce the number of accidents? How much truth is there in Dror's emphasis that major problems of contem porary public policymaking are constantly widening a gap between what is known about policymaking and how policy is actually carried out (Dror, 1968)? What is the state of that knowledge in relation to an explosive social change? A large number of drinking drivers are involved in the vicious cycle of poor health, poor education, unemployment, and crimes because they lack "adaptive j | coping" capabilities (Schein, 1965) to maintain a healthy j j j i state, and meaningful affiliations with other individuals J i and with organizations. The lack of adaptive coping j ! ! capabilities has resulted, in turn, in quite frequent | I punitive treatments by administrative agencies that j further drive these individuals out of the main stream of society rather than helping them to find their proper place in society. The lack of adaptive coping capabilities generates serious stress and strain, and these stress and strain t i must be released in some form. Certain drivers, while unable to establish meaningful contacts with other j | individuals, families, and employment organizations, havej | no adequate avenues of releasing their stress and strain j | except possibly through easy access to alcohol and sub- i j sequently driving recklessly as a mode of releasing the I stress and strain. When this behavior occurs, serious consequences are inevitable. In addition, some drivers are more visible and con spicuous to arresting officers. Under these conditions a negative symbol is established which predisposed the officer to arrest the driver, and it becomes self-fulfil ling and self-reinforcing, summed up in a theory of sym bolic interactionism (Edelman, 1964; Blumer, 1969). 23 It is therefore safe to assume that the probability of arrest for those conspicuous and visible drivers who drive older cars and whose outward appearances are disre putable will be high despite the possibility that out ward appearance and the kind of cars they are driving I may have little relationship to accidents. ! I 1 | Judicial responses to these arrestees are generally j I | punitive. Most of the time, the arrestees plead guilty j ; because they do not possess adequate financial means j i to bear the cost of a legal defense. They remain in ! jail until court decisions are finally made. In other j | i words, the courts are revolving doors for these people. Courts are overcrowded with drunk driving arrestees. And | i I I jails are overcrowded with individuals being held for j [ I I both drunk driving and drunkenness. ! It is no surprise to learn that the drunk driver has proved unfit for work or marriage. At middle age, he is isolated from society, habituated to dependency, uprooted, demoralized, and homeless, ignored by most conventional social institutions. The drunk driver may have been arrested as many as one hundred times, but his physical and mental diseases go unattended. In almost all American cities these unfortunate people clog the courts and jails. Some drunk drivers may have psycholo gical and physical problems that lead to frequent traffic 24 accidents, while others may have no accidents at all 1 even though they are frequently arrested as drunkards, or traffic offenders. It can be assumed therefore that there are differences between accident-involved drivers and accident-free drivers in a drunk driver population. The writer therefore rejects the linear and simpli- ! stic assumption that accidents will always and neces- j sarily occur when alcohol and driving are mixed, regard less of what other conditions exist, while not denying the fact that certain psychological and bodily effects i are caused by alcohol intake. Many traffic accidents are ; not purely accidents. They are also management failures. ; Management simply does not know how to deal with the j drunk driver population except by imposing punishment. | ; j | Punishment for drunkenness has been in this country for j i ! 350 years (Taylor, 1966) . In California, following the I failure of prohibition, a law was enacted specifying that i j any person driving an automobile while intoxicated would | be guilty of a misdemeanor. This resulted in the crea tion of a large number of public and private organizations for reducing drunk driving on the highways. Drunk driving is one of the most frequently committed misdemeanors in American cities. The number of drunk drivers arrested and convicted was increased markedly with the development of breath- 25 | alyzer testing instruments. Lester reported that a | considerably higher percentage of cases arrested for | drunk driving pleaded guilty when chemical test evidence shown by the breathalyzer instrument was used. The con viction rate increased from 55 to 93 percent when the ! chemical test evidence was available (Lester, 1956). The paradox of technology's impact, however, is that I : i for every problem solved a new one is born, and the more useful and desirable a new technology is, the more dis ruptive its effects are likely to become (Kostelanetz, 1968) . i i The effects of punishment are uncertain. To be | : i i i I effective in accident reduction, the law must define the j ! ! hazardous operations it wishes to proscribe. Then know- | ledge should be made available with respect to the deterrent effects of the various levels of jail sentences and fines. None of these, however, is clear. It is well known that the present load on the legal and judicial system is extremely burdensome, and adding further to this load could imperil the entire legal process (Bood- man, 1968). The breakdown in deterrence is caused by the incapabilities of the courts to process the arrested drunk drivers because the courts are another illustra tion of machine-like bureaucratization (Bendix, 1962) which had not originally anticipated a structural flexi 26 bility in coping with environmental change. Even so, ! much new legislation is designed to solve the problem by j | calling for more stringent penalties. The proper solu tion to the drunk driver problem should be functional management to aid in the reduction of traffic accidents rather than the penalization of the driver who, with the ! brand of a criminal, may be further alienated from so- | ciety. Such improved management may be facilitated | through contributions of knowledgeable men in the field (Lane, 1966) . | Present laws relating the drunk driver are ineffec- I tive not only because they are unenforceable (Penner, | 1965) , but also because they are unrelated to any phase | of the reduction of traffic accidents. In California, | there are 10 million registered vehicles; it is expected that more than 750,000 drivers are on the road after i having had one or more drinks. A number of studies showed that there were considerable proportions of drinking drivers on highways very few of whom had viewed their drinking as related to accidents (Peter, 1964). 1/ Until 1969, the critical blood alcohol level was — Critical level of alcohol concentration in the body not only recommended in Uniform Vehicle Code (1962 Rev.), but required State Standard by National Highway Safety Bureau (1967). .10 percent means that alcohol concentration in 27 | .15 percent in California, but medical authorities agreed ! , | | that this was too high. So in 1970, the State reduced i i ! | the critical blood alcohol level to .10 percent. j | i j Another example of a dysfunctional administrative | | mechanism is the fact that police arrest the same drinking ! drivers over and over again (Mendelson, 19 66) at the | I | expense of the taxpayer. Police organizations seem to be i ( • primarily concerned with increasing the efficiency of | i .their operations rather than with increasing the effective-; ' ness of their operations from the standpoint of the reduc- j i tion of traffic accidents. Known drivers are the easiest j to arrest, irrespective of whether or not these arrests j are made because of hazardous situations on the highways. j ; ! A frequent assumption is that arrests for drinking and driving are emphasized in neighborhoods which have higher j I ! rates of crime generally (Fox and Fox, 1963) , a situation is inevitable which may be organizational inflexibility does not permit police to take their own ''mixed scanning" (Etzioni, 1968) choice of action. Adherence to the rules by the police, originally conceived as a means of maintaining social order, becomes the body of ten one hundredth of one percent (.10%) or more, is prima facie evidence of being under the influence of alcohol. 28 transformed into an end-in-itself; there occurs the ' i I familiar process of "displacement of goals" whereby j j l ! instrumental values become terminal values (Blau, 1963). I j ! ! ! Subsequently, the court's punishment becomes a terminal i i value, while the Department of Motor Vehicles suspends or revokes drivers1 licenses even though the Department well recognizes that 46 percent of the drivers whose licenses j were either revoked or suspended continue to drive despite! the revocation (Coppin and Van Oldenbeek, 1966). Private s insurance agencies increase their premiums. All of these | responses involve a cycle of repressive acts which j i i increase psychological stress for the drivers and which ; may increase the likelihood of highway crashes. ! j All arguments in regard to this topic of drunk ! | drivers depend on the concept of accident vulnerability I articulated from a simplistic point of view of the psy- i chological and physiological effects of alcohol consump tion while all other conditions remain constant, a situa tion which never occurs in a real driving world. It seems, therefore, imperative to identify classi fiable dangerous drivers not only from the drunk driver population but also from the drunk driving-free population in order that administrative responses can be directed toward increasing traffic safety. CHAPTER III REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE ON SOCIAL STRESS AND ACCIDENTS ! i f I ! ! Introduction j " j i j | The significance of the problem and the ineffective- j | I ; ness of previous approaches suggest that a direct exami- ; 1 j ! nation of the kinds of stress likely to be related to | ! accidents may prove helpful in suggesting policy and j administrative changes for their alleviation. The general : 1 concept of social stress and its concomitant general adaptation syndrome suggested by Selye (Selye, 1956), is ! ; defined as a condition of tension or anxiety within an , : i individual which occurs as a response to one or more j j ; stressful conditions (Croog, 1970). ! j ! j I Under one conception, in highway management there i are three principal elements to which stress can be re- i j lated. These are the familiar triad of traffic systems I components of drivers, cars, and roadways. This systems triad suggests the following three main approaches. The first approach has been adopted principally by the medical profession, a few psychologists, social psychologists, and behavioral scientists. In this approach, individual drivers are assumed to be primarily responsible for accidents. Individual behaviors have been extensively investigated and analyzed, and several ______________________________ 29______________________________ I behavioral patterns have evolved. One of the most con sistently identified patterns in traffic accidents is drunk driving. Drinking has received major attention with its concomitant social, psychological, and cultural cor relates (McCarroll and Haddon, 1962; Borkenstein, et al., 1964; Waller, 1966). i The second approach views traffic accidents from the | point of view of mechanical failure of the car. This | approach is adopted principally by defense attorneys and | automobile mechanical engineers. They argue that nearly | | fifty percent of traffic accidents are the result of ! defects in the automobiles themselves. Their efforts i have been directed toward improving mechanical design of automobiles (Berry, et al., 1963; Boodman, 1968). The third approach is directed toward more efficient highway engineering on the assumption that poor highway conditions are primary determinants of traffic accidents. This approach is taken mainly by traffic and civil engi neers. Since they claim that traffic accidents occur quite frequently at badly designed and controlled inter sections and on poor roadways, the elimination of these hazards promises a reduction in traffic accidents (Ribi- coff, 1968). The second and the third approaches are limited to engineering and technological fields, although their 31 I interaction with the first approach is substantial. According to Jacques Ellul, technology per se is no longer i an instrument for human purposes, but has become an end in itself, controlling men and their societies (Ellul, 1964). He would welcome electronically "computerized ; cars" which would control men in traffic situations, | ! resulting in few, if any, traffic accidents. Other ima- ! I ginative technologists speculate on the future of the | ' automobile. They argue that the size of our cities will I demand a major overhaul of our transportation system and j that the automobile will become obsolete. In fact, the i | technologists would prefer another means of travel. j j ! I The automobile has become such an integral part of | I I the American economy and society that no man and no j j business is likely in the near future to escape its problems. Nor are computerized cars economically feasible in the foreseeable future. Even if men were willing to be dominated by total technological control of traffic which may have the implication of the absolute technolo gical dictatorship (Orwell, 19 49) , men will still control technology not vice versa. Thus, it seems still worth while to focus on the first approach in which individual drivers are assumed to be primarily responsible for traffic accidents. The following review will be concerned with the identification of three major classes of stress and their relationships to traffic accidents. 32 j Social Stress and Accidents | The following review is organized around three re- i ! lated clusters of stress. These are (1) Psycho-Somatic, (2) Poverty, and (3) Punitive. The Psycho-Somatic cluster includes those tensions j or anxieties which are associated with psychological j ; j physical illness, and is indicated by such variables as ; sickness, negative self-concept, lack of tolerance for ! i I : ambiguity, and status inconsistency. McFarland and his associates in Human Variables in j Motor Vehicle Accidents, demonstrated the role of physical j ! and psychological factors in motor vehicle accidents j (McFarland, et al., 1955). If accidents do not occur by i chance, they may be significant indicators of self punishment, self-sacrifice, or a desire to destroy some thing that has depreciated. Several studies of psycho somatic variables view drinking as a manifestation of latent forces generated by dysfunctional psycho-somatic conditions. Selzer and Weiss, for example, suggested that the lack of control of emotion or tension was one of the predictor variables that has high in the accident group, having symptoms of chronic or frequently recurrent rage or resentment toward others (Selzer and Weiss, 1966) . I 33 ; Also the chronic or frequently recurrent rage or resent- i | j ment toward others is characteristic of psychopathological j people who are socially extroverted, and who lack impulse control and feeling for others (Blum, 1968). I j One of the Selzer's conclusions indicated that automobile accidents might be purposely caused by an j ! j acute psychopathological disturbance that had its under lying energy generated by social stress (Selzer and Rogers, 1968). Psychopathological disturbances, and their relationship to traffic accidents, have also been discussed by Brown and his associates whose findings on traffic fatalities were related to behavioral expressions ; ; i , t ; of personality, drinking, and psychotic disorders (Brown, et al., 1968) . I 1 ‘ i I Conger and others showed significant relationships i | I between traffic accidents and psychological and psycho- ! physiological factors independent of drinking in which variables such as hostility control, aggressive behavior, egocentricity, and fantasy tension tolerance were asso ciated with accident repeaters (Conger, et al., 1959). There is a suggested typology of accident proneness from which a person's character, and psychic and physical conditions are conceptually related to the production of long term accident proneness (McGuire, 1970). ; 34 ! Stressful conditions associated with and charac- i i I terized by poverty may result from social institutional j | ! arrangements with increased specialization and division of labor accompanied by, in Weberian terms, increasing | objective rationalization. With the proliferation and : specialization of occupations, the individual becomes j | j ' l ; increasingly lost as a significant and meaningful part | i ; of the social institutional network. Kemper's "expectations of significant others" and ! Rieseman's "lonely crowd" are, in part, illustrations of ; individuals who are having increasing difficulties in | becoming part of a meaningful social institutional net- ; work (Rieseman, 1961; Kemper, 1963). j ' i | Over a span of time, these individuals, without a ; i meaningful role in the social institutional network, are frequently fired, or change jobs frequently, conditions which, according to Tillman and Hobbs, are somehow assumed to be related to accident proneness (Tillman and Hobbs, 1949) . More specifically, Selzer and his associates pointed out that variables such as personal conflict, tragedy, and vocational financial stress are characteris tic of accident populations. The presence of one or more of these poverty indicators characterized 52 percent of the accident population as compared to 18 percent of a control population (Selzer, et al., 1967). I Poverty can be thought of as a form of alienation i ; S characterized by a history of failure to complete social j objectives. Individuals of this kind continue to ex perience tensions or anxieties associated with financial strain, low income, lack of distributive justice, lack j of communication with others, lack of job satisfaction, ; j low occupational status, unemployment, low education, j ; i : I and occupational instability. Many of the previous studies associate these poverty i variables with alcoholism. Similarly, a history of poor 1 ; adjustment to school, occupation, and social obligations j has been shown to be associated with alcoholism (Terhune, : 1964) . Furthermore, Bates indicated that the alcoholic | | changes jobs frequently, holds a position well below his j 1 | ! | | obvious education and ability, may have held a good i | executive position but takes an inferior job with a smaller company, is a self-employed man who goes into bankruptcy, or a healthy man who is unemployed (Bates, 1963). Pittman and Gordon in their investigation of chrome public drunkenness offenders in Monroe County, Rochester, showed that 68 percent of public drunkenness offenders were unskilled as against 13 percent unskilled workers in the general population. They further showed that 70 percent of public drunkenness offenders did not go beyond grade school as compared to 40 percent in the 36 ' I general population (Pittman and Gordon, 1958). Bates, j i in a similar finding, reported that 55 percent of alcoholic ; i ■ patients had either dropped out of school, or were without j i high school education (Bates, 1963), while Mendelson ; later reported that those with grade school education were over-represented among alcoholics (Mendelson, 1966) . i : j What all of these findings suggest, with the excep- j j tion of the results of Selzer's study, is the possibility that alcoholics, having problems associated with and | | describing poverty, may not be involved in traffic acci- j ; dents any more than the general driving population. j Selzer's study, though contradicting this suggestion, was j : i : based on a very small sample. Furthermore, it may be i that poverty is not a sufficient condition for either j ! alcoholism, or traffic accidents. ! The Punitive cluster of stress concerns responses j of law enforcement agencies, courts, and departments of t i | motor vehicles to individuals who have committed either traffic offenses, or criminal offenses and are likely to be frequent offenders. Frequent traffic citations, together with frequent criminal activities, are reported to have significant relationships to drunk driving although their relation ship to traffic accidents is less well documented (Holcomb, 1938; Lucas, et al., 1955; Loomis and West, 1961; Schmidt, 37 et al., 1962; West, 1963; and Waller, 1967). Hayman, : for example, reported that 57 percent of convicted drunk | drivers were alcoholics although he failed to relate | these problems to accidents (Hayman, 1966). Selzer | and Weiss, on the other hand, reported from their study in Washtenau County, Michigan, that 78 percent of the ■ arrested drunk drivers had serious pathological drinking problems, and that they had a higher number of traffic accidents than did non-alcoholic drivers (Selzer and Weiss, 1966). Similarly, Levonian reported that the re- : lationships between the number of traffic violations and the number of reported accidents was statistically sig nificant (Levonian, 1967). i Despite these instances of empirically demonstrated i j relations, it seems appropriate to conclude that the evi- | i dence for a relationship between prior punitive experi ences and traffic accidents are fragmentary, and depends on inferences associated with alcoholism, rather than direct empirical evidence. Summary On the basis of a brief review of the triad of traf fic systems components involving drivers, cars, and road ways, this chapter focused on individual drivers on the assumption that they are primarily responsible for traffic 38 accidents. With this focus, it appears that social stress has clearer implications for traffic safety than does alcohol alone. The breadth of the concept of social stress requires division into a number of related sets of conditions relevant to traffic accident events: Those considered were clusters related to (1) Psycho-Somatic, (2) Poverty, and (3) Punitive conditions. A review of previous studies suggests that the psycho-somatic problems such as sickness, negative self- concept. lack of tolerance for ambiguity, and status inconsistency, have better predictive potential for traffic accidents than variables associated with poverty and punitive conditions. CHAPTER IV THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE Introduction Many studies have been carried out with a primary focus on the relation between drinking and accidents. These studies generally substantiated the common sense extrapolation of the physiological effects of alcohol in ! laboratory experiments to the likely effects of alcohol ; on drinking and accidents. Individual variations and t environmental differences are so diverse, however, that the explanatory utility of such studies is severely j limited, and have led to policies which do not discrimi- ; nate between drunk drivers who are accident-prone and i those who are not. What is needed is a set of explana- i i tory propositions that will guide empirical studies to j the end of explaining accidents, so that public policy can be concerned with reducing the number of traffic accidents. This chapter suggests a disorganization process as a candidate for a theoretical framework to explain the differential effects of accident producing activities. This process is based on the concept of social stress defined in such a way that it will be open to operational and empirical investigation. 39 __ ; Disorganization Process in Perspective The disorganization process is an integration from | | the perspective of social stress of the three levels of j j individual, social institutions, and managerial responses i j as explanatory components of a process that will most ! likely lead to serious traffic accidents. Today most individuals have institutional ties and move in a world associated with large and complex organi- : zations. These large and complex organizations serve in ; part as structural mechanisms for reducing, individual stress or tension. There are nevertheless many indivi- ; duals who have little access to these organizational ; environments. These are forgotten men. The symptoms of personal demoralization or disorga- j | nization, involving psycho-somatic stress, have preoccu pied the psychologist, just as the symptoms of social disorganization, involving a poverty and punitive stress, have the sociologist. These sciences have concluded that people are in need of integration with organizations, or with organizational process in which their need to belong and to experience satisfying relations with others can be fulfilled (Wolin, 1969). Poverty and punitive stress are characterized by tensions or anxieties related to low income, financial strain, low education, low occupation, unemployment, 41 occupational instability, perceptions of a lack of ! t distributive justice, and the lack of job satisfaction. These tensions or anxieties are reinforced by frequent punishment through the administrative mechanisms of official agencies. Because some individuals have vi sible characteristics of this poverty syndrome, the probability of being identified by law enforcement agents; increases (Edelman, 1964). Therefore, poverty stress is ) often closely associated with punitive stress, which may be only slightly related to traffic accidents. Problems associated with these three stress factors i are recurrent. Individuals who are either psycho- i somatically ill, or are poor, often lack institutional j skills required to relieve their stress. In addition, j I some institutions require certain educational prerequi sites, age limits, and sometimes particular political, social, and cultural attributes. Disorganization and stress are inevitable under these organizational pre requisites for a number of individuals who remain outside normative institutional boundaries. If man is an organizational or social animal, he requires institutional ties for survival. Institutions can be thought of as the only available instrument to release tension or anxiety. Therefore, those individuals who are excluded from institutions tend to cluster and develop their own institutions to meet their own needs. | Such structures are often dysfunctional and threaten the | maintenance of the existing normative political and I | social institutions. These dysfunctional institutions may be ones directed toward "organized collective violence" (Grimshaw, 19 70). Long ago Merton pointed to disorganizational processes or "socially structured strain," as a major source of crime. If persons accept the value of success but are prevented from reaching success through legitimate means, they will invent illegitimate means (Merton, 1968). In this sense, crime is built into the disorganization process itself. Institutions of "organized collective violence" are, : however, seldom related to the occurrence of traffic accidents because traffic accidents are more likely i i attributable to disorganized "individual violence." I "Organized collective violence" is derived from the stresses of poverty and punishment, while individual violence probably results from psycho-somatic stress. Alcohol is related to both the organizational and disorganizational processes. When alcohol is consumed as a part of social entertainment, individuals derive satisfaction from identifying with or belonging to par ticular groups or with institutions where they are accepted as worthwhile. But when alcohol is consumed in 43 j | order to release tensions or anxieties, it results in the reinforcement of disorganization and increases the probability of the problem of alcoholism. But, if | institutional exclusions are associated with poverty | and punishment, then when alcohol is associated with | institutional exclusion it is unlikely to be related to the kind of "individual violence" which characterizes ; traffic accidents. The significance of the disorganization process, j as a theoretical framework, is this: If the goal of ; traffic management is to reduce the number of traffic j accidents, it is imperative to identify pertinent i | variables or factors which are related to traffic acci dents. The disorganization process discussed includes as one manifestation of psycho-somatic stress which, it is argued, will have explanatory utility for accidents. If administrative mechanisms are established to perform effective traffic management, they must take account of conditions which lead to accidents. If they fail to do this they are dysfunctional and costly. When admini strative procedures focus on drivers characterized by poverty and punishment stress they are likely to be dysfunctional and ineffective. i Summary l The basic argument of this chapter is that disor- ganizational processes have significant relationships with effective traffic management. Three particular ! manifestations of disorganizational processes are iden- ; tified, and arguments adduced with respect to their j probable relation to traffic accidents. ; The first is psycho-somatic stress, defined as a ; condition of sickness, both physiological and psycholo- i gical. Because this kind of stress describes individual incapacities, and traffic accidents are events caused by ; individuals, who are unable to perform adequately, it is | likely to have predictive utility for accidents. | The second is stress attributable to poverty, and the third is punitive stress which is a condition charac terizing individuals perceived as a deviant. Neither poverty nor punitive stress describe conditions which are sufficient to explain traffic accidents, because they are socially defined conditions of classes of indi viduals, although they are clearly related to one another. These arguments lead to the conclusion that drinking and driving is likely to be related to accident, only if the drunk drivers are undergoing psycho-somatic stress. CHAPTER V RESEARCH PROCEDURES | Introduction | This chapter describes the approach to evaluating | the very general theoretical position outlined in | chapter IV. Since the hypotheses for this study were specific to the samples used, they follow the sample descriptions, rather than being presented as part of the theoretical discussion. The remainder of the chapter includes operational definitions for the basic concepts of the hypotheses, the measurement instruments, data collection procedures, and the statistical procedures used to test the hypotheses. i | | Sample Selection I The Drinking Driver and Traffic Safety Project of I t the University of Southern California, of which this study is one part, identified a total of 1,900 convicted drunk drivers as an experimental group using stratified random selection controlling for ethnic distribution. These drunk drivers were convicted in six Los Angeles Municipal Courts over a ten-month period from August 1969 through May 1970. The municipal courts were (1) San Antonio, (2) Citrus, (3) South Gate, (4) Downey, (5) Alhambra, and (6) Compton. __________ 45 _____________ 46 From this sample, 150 drunk drivers were selected i on a random basis for this study. The larger project i | also randomly selected 340 driver license applicants as i I ! a control group from three local Department of Motor | Vehicles offices in July 1970. These local offices were (1) Citrus, (2) San Antonio, and (3) Compton. For this study 100 of these driver license applicants were ran domly selected, and comprise the general driver sample. In this study, therefore, of a total sample of 250 drivers in Los Angeles County, 150 were drunk drivers and comprise an experimental group, and 100 were general drivers as a control group. | Hypotheses This research is concerned with three principal research hypotheses together with several sub-hypotheses that are related to major traffic accidents. Hypothesis I is that there are no significant dif ferences between drunk drivers and general drivers with respect to their involvement in major traffic accidents. This hypothesis assumes that drinking per se does not explain accidents. If this is true, then hypothesis II follows. Hypothesis II is that there is no significant relationship between drinking patterns and frequency of 47 i traffic accidents. j j Hypothesis III is that psycho-somatic stress is significantly related to traffic accidents among both convicted drunk drivers and among general drivers. The basic rationale for this hypothesis is that ! there are psychological and somatic prerequisites for safe driving. These are the three fundamental hypotheses ; of this study. They imply several sub-hypotheses con cerning relationships between traffic accidents and \ ! different classes of drivers. j Sub-hypothesis 1 is that psycho-somatic stress will ; differentiate between accident-involved and accident- l ! free drivers in a drunk driver population. i i 1 l Sub-hypothesis 2 is that psycho-somatic stress will ! . . . I i ! also differentiate between accident-involved and accident-^ ! ■ i i free drivers in a general driver population. Sub-hypothesis 3 is that poverty stress will differ entiate between drunk drivers and general drivers in an accident-free population. Sub-hypothesis 4 is that, similarly, punitive stress will differentiate between drunk drivers and general drivers in an accident-free population. Operational Definitions There are three major theoretical constructs of 48 j concern in this study. These are the three conditions of ! stress defined in Chapter IV and included in the hypo- I ! theses: Psycho-Somatic, Poverty, and Punitive Stress. ! Psycho-Somatic Stress is characterized by physical | illness, unhealthy self-image, high intolerance toward ; a world of ambiguity, and a feeling of status inconsi- i ; stency. Poverty Stress is characterized by continual finan- | cial strain, low income, lack of distributive justice, lack of communication with others, lack of satisfaction j with job, low occupation, unemployment, low education, I and occupational instability. Punitive Stress characterizes individuals perceived | as a deviant, and rejected by others as a means of pu nishment. It includes problem drinking, drunk driving offenses, moving traffic offenses, criminal activities and frequent contacts with professional and institutional care and services. A Traffic Accident is an unintended or unplanned highway crash resulting in damage amounting to $300 or more. The following schedule defines the components of each of the three stress conditions as well as the cri- terion of accidents, according to the specific items and coding categories used to measure each of the variables 49 | in this study. I Measurement Instruments j j The scale of measurement instruments consists of the | following 21 disorganization process variables: | j 1. TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS Traffic accidents with $300 damage or more during lifetime. (Directly obtained by respondents) 1) No accident 2) One accident 3) Two accidents 4) Three accidents 5) Four accidents or more 1 2 3 4 5 » ------- 1 ---------1 -------1 --------s ------- 1 | Low High ! 2. SICKNESS i i a. Have you had any serious illness or surgery in the past two years? 0) No 1) Yes b. Have you been hospitalized during the last two years for observation or recovery? 0) No 1) Yes c. How many times have you stayed home due to sickness in the past two years? 0) Two times or less 1) Three times or more d. How would you describe your present health? 0) Very good or good 1) Fair or poor Recode Items a, b, c, and d 1) All 0's ’ 2) One 1 ’ 3) Two l's '4) Three 11 s 5) Four 11s 1 2 3 4 5 • i i i i i Low High NEGATIVE SELF-CONCEPT There are nine blanks on the page below. Please fill in the blanks after "I am" with a word, phrase, or sentence. Give nine different answers. Answer as if you were giving the answers to yourself, not to somebody else. Write the answers in the order that they occur to you. Don't worry about logic or "importance. Go along fairly fast, for the time is limited. I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am I am 1) No negative responses (self-concept) 2) 1 to 2 negative responses 3) 3 to 4 negative responses 4) 5 to 6 negative responses 5) 7 to 9 negative responses 51 1 2 3 4 5 --------- j ----------j ---------j ---------- 1 ------ Low High LACK OP TOLERANCE FOR AMBIGUITY a. I never give up when I'm trying to get something. b. I have definite ideas about most things. True False d. If I don't reach my goals I get very upset. Most people have strong ideas about certain things. It is difficult for most people to move into an entirely new environ ment. c. Most people have goals they strive for in life. x Most people like to know what they are going to do next. x h. Most people do not change their opinions easily. sc k. I almost always know where I'm going when I go out. _x_ 1. It bothers me sometimes when I don't know what my (husband)(wife) is doing, when (he) (she) is not with me. x I have left a job several times without knowing what I was going to do next. x I can go a long time without making a decision about what I am going to do about something. x 52 True m. When people are late for a meeting with me, I get nervous or upset. x I usually go to the same restau rant or bars when I go out. s. I usually like to know what other people are thinking about. n. I usually can't work when I am waiting for something important to happen. s c I like to know who will be at a party before I go. x I would rather not take a job which required traveling. x When I am given a puzzle to work out I usually work on it until I solve it. x t. I usually have certain things I do on weekends. x _1) No x1 s "2) 1 to 5 x' s _3) 6 to 10 x's _4) 11 to 15 x's ” 5) 16 to 20 x's T--------i --------1 --------1 --------1 --------r Low High 5. STATUS INCONSISTENCY True a. Looking back, I probably should have earned more money for the jobs I held. x b. My present housing does not satisfy me. x False False True c. Sometimes I feel that I should have a lot more than I have. x d. I am sometimes ashamed to tell people what my job is. x e. Some of the people at the place where I work feel that it is not as good as another company or business. jc h. I received enough money for the work I do and the level I am at. f. Sometimes I feel that there are better places where I would rather work. x Sometimes I feel that the amount of my education has kept me back. x i. I am accomplishing what I want to accomplish in my work. 1) No x1s 2) 1 to 2 x' s 3) 3 to 4 x's 4) 5 to 6 x's 5) 7 to 9 x's _ . . j j j. Low High 6. FINANCIAL STRAIN a. My level of income has; 0) Worked out well, worked out somewhat never thought about it one way or another. 1) Not too well, or not well at all. b. I feel that this income is enough to meet meet my basic needs. 0) Yes 1) No Recode Items a, and b above False 1 i i i X X 1) No 11 s 2) One 1 '3) Two 1' s 54 Low High 7. LOW INCOME What is your approximate total family income? 1) $6,000 or more for one person, $9 ,000 or more if there are any dependents 2) Less than $6,000 for one person, less than $9,000 if there are any dependents Low High 8. LACK OF DISTRIBUTIVE JUSTICE a. When a person does not reach his goal in life, a great deal of frustration is experienced. b. Someone else sometimes gets credit for work which is mine. c. Others receive more money than I for approximately the same effort and ability. d. I have received all the credit to which I am entitled. e. I feel that others do not realize how much I have done. f. Younger persons with less experi ence than I have received better positions. True False X X X X X X 1) No x's '2) 1 x 3) 2 x's 4) 3 to 4 x1 s ’ 5) 5 to 6 x's 1 2 3 4 5 55 9. 10. I I I I 1 Low LACK OF COMMUNICATION WITH OTHERS High True False a. People are friendly but they don't usually want to get involved. b. I sometimes wish I could talk to people more easily. c. I sometimes feel uneasy when I'm with people. d. I spend a lot of time alone. e. Others are generally interested in what I have to say. f. Most people like to be with others. I feel lonely at times even when people are around. 1) No x's ”2) 1 x ”3) 2 to 3 x' s ”4) 4 to 5 x's _5) 6 to 7 x's 2 3 T--------T Low 4 ~T~ 5 T High LACK OF SATISFACTION WITH JOB x X X True False a. I generally feel satisfied"with my job. b. I am satisfied with the occupation I am in. x x c. How much do you like your present job? 0) A lot, or some __1) Very little, or not at all Recode Items a, b, and c above __1) No x1s or 0 above 2) Any 1 x or 1 above 1 2 I I i Low High 11. LOW OCCUPATION What is your occupation? 1) Professional, managerial, skilled, clerical work, etc. 2) Not in labor force such as student, housewife, retired, etc. 3) Unskilled, semi-skilled laborers, personal services, domestic jobs, seasonal occupations, etc. 1 2 3 _ ; j r Low High 12. UNEMPLOYMENT Are you presently working? (If you are on vacation or temporarily ill, check yes) 1) Yes 2) No 1 2 t----------------1 -------------------r Employed Unemployed 13. LOW EDUCATION How far were you able to go in school? 1) More than high school education 2) High school education or less 57 1 2 t----------------1 ------------------r Low High 14. OCCUPATIONAL INSTABILITY How many jobs have you held in the past five years? 1) Two jobs or less 2) Three jobs or more 1 2 t----------------> ------------------r Low High 15. PROBLEM DRINKING a. On the average, how often do you take a drink at your home alone? 0) Once every two weeks, once a month, 6 times a year, or never 1) Daily, several times a week, or once a week b. How often do you drink? Give the best guess for the last 12 months. 0) On the average once a week, once every two weeks, or once a month, once every two months, less frequently than 6 times a year, or never drank 1) On the average several times a day, daily, or several times a week c. In the last five years how many sprees or binges were there? 0) 2 times or less 1) 3 times or more d. How often do you take a drink in the morning? 0) Rarely, or never 1) Regularly, or sometimes 58 e. Did you ever feel you were not doing your job as well as you could because of drinking? Did you ever have problems with fellow employees because you were irritable simply on account of your drinking? Were you ever fired because of your drinking? Did you ever quit your job because you were going to be fired because of your drinking? Did your employer ever talk to you about your drinking? 0) All no's from 5 questions above 1) Any one yes or yes's from 5 questions above Recode Items a., b, c, d, and e above 1) Non-Drinker (if never drank) 2) Social Drinker (if all 0's excluding 'never drank' items) 3) Incipient Problem Drinking (Only one 1) 4) Problem Drinker (if any two l's) 5) Serious Problem Drinker (if any three l's or more) 1 2 3 4 5 I I I I I I Low High 16. DRUNK DRIVING OFFENSES (Including VC 23102, and 23103) (From Driving Records) 1) No offense 2) 1 offense 3) 2 offenses 4) 3 offenses 5) 4 offenses or more 1 2 3 4 5 i---------- 1 ----------- 1 -------- — i ---------1 i Low High 59 ! 17. MOVING TRAFFIC OFFENSES ' (Including those minor moving offenses of official i traffic control devices on "green" and "yellow" j signs and signals, overtaking and passing, right-of- way, and any other unsafe turns such as VC's 21451, 21452, 21457, 21460, 21461, 21462, 21650, 21651, 21654, 21655, 21658, 21660, 21752, 21754, 21802, 21804, 21805, 22101, 22102, 22109, 22153, 22450, and 22500) (From Driving Records) 1) No offense j 2) 1 Offense 3) 2 Offenses ; 4) 3 Offenses - | 5) 4 Offenses or more 1 2 3 4 5 T i i i i T Low High 18. POLICE ARRESTING BEHAVIOR Was there ever a time when a policeman stopped you after you had been drinking but let you go without arresting you for drunk driving? 1) No, or never been stopped by a policeman. 2) Once 3) Twice 4) Three times 5) Four times or more 1 2 3 4 5 t------------ 1 -------- 1 ------------1 -----------1 -----------r Low High 19. INSTITUTIONAL CARE Which of the following services have you been to in the last five years? (Put a check mark for each one) welfare marriage counselor psychiatrist alcoholic clinic veneral disease clinic private doctor for advice about alcoholism, VD, marriage problems outpatient, hospital or free clinic or any 60 of the above probation office other Recode above 1) No check mark 2) One check mark of higher 1............2.......... I I I Low High 20. CRIMINAL ARRESTS - ALCOHOL RELATED (Excluding Traffic Offenses - Criminal Records) 1) No arrest 2) 1 arrest 3) 2 arrests 4) 3 arrests 5) 4 arrests or more 1 2 3 4 5 I I I I I V Low High 21. CRIMINAL ARRESTS - NON-ALCOHOL RELATED (Excluding Traffic Offenses - Criminal Records) 1) No arrest 2) 1 arrest 3) 2 arrests 4) 3 arrests 5) 4 arrests or more 1 2 3 4 5 t-------- 1------ —i -------- 1------ 1-------- r Low High 61 Data Collection Procedures j There were four sources of data for this study: (1) The Stress Questionnaire is a self-administered, with open-end and true/false questionnaires related to stress variables in personal life, use of alcohol, pre vious accidents, and self-concept, developed by the project staff of the Drinking Driver and Traffic Safety i Project of the University of Southern California. (2) The Traffic Safety Research Questionnaire is also a self-administered, including open-end and multi- ! i pie-choice questions relating to demographic, drinking driving, and crash characteristics, also developed by the project staff of the Drinking Driver and Traffic ! Safety Project of the University. | (3) Driving Records Individual driving records for i a three-year period were obtained from the California Department of Motor Vehicles from which variables 16 and 17 were coded. (4) Criminal Records Individual criminal records were obtained from California Bureau of Criminal Investi gations and Identification. The Drinking Driver and Traffic Safety Project collected all of the above data for the group of drunk drivers. For the general drivers, the Stress Question naire and the Traffic Safety Research Questionnaire were j combined. Therefore, items which were common to both i ! the separately administered Stress and Traffic Safety Questionnaire and the Consolidated Questionnaire were used in this study. i Statistical Procedures I --------------------------------------------------------------------- There are two basic questions to which the stati stical analyses must be directed. The first concerns the validity of the categories of stress conceived as describing the disorganization processes likely to be related to traffic accidents. A factor analysis of all twenty-one variables included in the operationalization of the concepts of concern in this study will be used. | The extent to which those variables in terms of which each of the stress clusters were defined conceptually are inter-related or comprise statistically derived factors will be one test of the validity of the concep tual elements of kinds of stress that may be related to traffic accidents. The second basic question to which statistical analyses can be applied has to do with the validity of the hypotheses of this research. Since most of the hypotheses and sub-hypotheses are phrased in terms of differences between groups or differences between dis tributions of different groups, the appropriate stati- 63 j i stical tests are those which evaluate difference bet- j ; ween means or between distributions. For these purposes, I t-tests and Chi-square tests have been used. i I Summary In this chapter the research procedures, hypotheses, ! I operational definitions, and statistical procedures have | : ] : been described. j Two samples, one which includes 150 drunk drivers, and the other which includes 100 general drivers, were selected. A number of hypotheses relating to drinking behavior and accidents to different kinds of stress were | formulated. Operational definitions of and coding pro- j ! I cedures for 21 variables associated with the concepts of j ! I | stress, accidents, and law violations, were presented. ! | Although the data were already available, they had to be i recoded in order that the variables selected could be uniformly applied to both samples so that comparative analyses could be made. A factor analysis was proposed as a test of theoretical utility of the clusters of stress identified as reflecting the disorganization process. Both Student t and Chi-square tests were described as appropriate for tests of the substantive hypotheses of this research. CHAPTER VI : j FINDINGS ! Introduction This chapter describes the results of statistical analyses outlined briefly in the previous chapter, j The first analysis is of the frequency of traffic ; i accidents for the drunk driver and the general driver ! samples. Second, drinking patterns of convicted drunk drivers j ' j and general drivers are compared, and then these groups ! : t are divided into accident-involved and accident-free j groups in order to test Hypothesis II. i Before examining data with respect to Hypothesis i III, which suggests that particular kinds of stress are | associated with accidents, a factor analysis was carried j | out to test the validity of the three categories of stress derived from the analysis of disorganizational process for the functional management of traffic safety. The variables which comprise the operational defi nition of psycho-somatic stress are examined individually in order to see if these variables significantly dif ferentiate between the accident-involved driver and the accident-free driver. And finally, sub-hypotheses 3 and 4 are tested with poverty and punitive stress serving as 64 65 differentiators of the drunk-driving and general driving groups of accident-free drivers. Traffic Accidents Hypothesis I states that there are no significant differences between drunk drivers and general drivers with respect to the number of accidents in which they have been involved. Table 1 shows that 48 percent of the drunk driver sample had one or more traffic accident experiences during their life time of driving as compared to 47 percent of the general driver sample. Fifteen percent of the drunk driver sample had been involved in two or more accidents by comparison with 20 percent of the general driver sample. The Chi Square calculated for these distributions of accidents in the two driver samples could have been obtained more than 50 percent of the time by chance. Therefore, it seems fair to accept hypothesis I. TABLE 1 NUMBER OF ACCIDENTS OF DRUNK DRIVERS AND GENERAL DRIVER SAMPLES, LOS ANGELES COUNTY, 1970 Drunk Drivers General Drivers Percent Chi Square Traffic Accidents (N==150) (N==100) Difference test Percent Number Percent Number No Accident 52.0% 78 53.0% 53 -1.0% 2.9790 (p;>.50 One Accident 33.3 50 27.0 27 6.3 with 4 degrees of Two Accidents 10.7 16 14.0 14 -3.3 freedom) Thre Accidents 2.0 3 3.0 3 -1.0 Four Accidents or more 2.0 3 3.0 3 -1.0 100.0% 150 100.0% 100 i C T l j < T > ! i Drinking Patterns ! Hypothesis II says that drinking patterns are unrelated to traffic accidents. Knowing that convicted drunk drivers have no more (and no less) accidents than the general driver we could conclude that drinking patterns will not differentiate drunk drivers from j general drivers either. I i Table 2 compares the reported drinking patterns of i terms of the drunk driver group and the general driver ; group. All of the convicted drunk driver sample drink i ! to some degree by definition. Twenty-four percent of j the general driver sample described themselves as non- i drinkers. At this purely definitional level, therefore, | I drinking patterns do differentiate the drunk from the general driver. Table 2 shows that of those who do drink social drinkers represent 35 percent in the drunk driver sample, and 38 percent of the general driver. Similar proportions of the two groups are problem drinkers, and the overall Chi-Square for this comparison could have been obtained by chance more than 60 times out of one hundred. To evaluate the relation between drinking patterns and traffic accidents, both drunk and general samples were divided into accident-involved and accident-free groups. ___________________________________________________ TABLE 2 I DRINKING PATTERNS OF DRUNK DRIVER AND GENERAL DRIVER SAMPLES j EXCLUDING THOSE WHO DO NOT DRINK, LOS ANGELES COUNTY, 1970 ‘ Classification of Drinkers Drunk (N= Drivers =150) General Drivers (N=76) Percent Difference Chi Square test Percent Number Percent Number Social Drinkers 35.3% 53 38.1% 29 -2.8% 1.1718 (p>* .60 Incipient Problem with 3 Drinkers 25.3 38 22.4 17 2.9 degrees of freedom) Problem Drinkers 16.7 25 21.0 16 -4.3 Serious Problem Drinkers 22.7 34 18.5 14 4.2 100.0% 150 100.0% 76 o o 69 ! i Table 3 presents the frequencies of each group according to drinking pattern. The probability associa ted with the obtained Chi-Square is greater than .70, suggesting that the stress hypothesis can be accepted as well. Social drinkers and incipient problem drinkers i represent slightly over 60 percent of a total sample ! ■ I group with no particularly striking differences between j the accident-involved driver and the accident-free driver; The same is true with problem drinkers and serious ; i v / » problem drinkers who represent nearly 40 percent of the total driver sample in which no differences between the : I accident-involved driver and the accident-free driver ■ ■ ! groups were apparent, irrespective of whether or not ! j i i the driver has been convicted of drunk driving. Incidentally, of the 24 general drivers not included in these analyses, 11 had had accidents (or about 46 percent) and 13 had not (or 54 percent), percentages which are virtually equivalent to the overall group, providing further evidence for the conclusion that drinking pat terns are unrelated to accidents, even among those who do not drink at all. Categories of Stress A factor analysis of the 21 variables was carried out for the total sample of 250 drivers. The results of TABLE 3 DRINKING PATTERNS AND ACCIDENT INVOLVEMENT OF DRUNK DRIVER AND GENERAL DRIVER SAMPLES EXCLUDING THOSE WHO DO NOT DRINK, LOS ANGELES COUNTY, 1970 Classification of Drinkers (N=72) Accident- Involved Drunk Drivers (N=78) General Drivers (N=40) Accident- Free (N=36) Accident- Involved Accident- Free Total (N=226) % (N) % (N) % (N) % (N) % (N) Social Drinkers 30.5% (22) 39.7% (31) 33.5% (12) 42.5%(17) 36.3%(82) Incipient Pro blem Drinkers 25.0 (18) 25.6 (20) 25.1 (9) 20.0 (8) 24.3 (55) Problem Drinkers 16.7 (12) 16.7 (13) 19.1 (7) 22.5 (9) 18.2 (41) Serious Problem Drinkers 27.8 (20) 18.0 (14) 22.3 (8) 15.0 (6) 21.2 (48) 100.0% (72) 100.0% (78) 100.0% (36) 100.0%(40) 100.0%(226) Chi Square=5.4709 « p > .70 with 9 degrees of freedom) 71 a three factor solution are shown in the form of factor loadings in Table 4. As a partial test of hypothesis III, it can be seen that the variable traffic accidents has a high factor loading (.678) on the factor called psycho-somatic, and relatively low loadings on the other two factors. This suggests that psycho-somatic stress would have better predictive utility for explaining traffic accidents than either poverty or punitive stress. As a more direct test of hypothesis II, a multiple correlation was calculated between accidents and the four components of psycho-somatic stress - sickness, negative self-concept, lack of tolerance for ambiguity, and status inconsistency. The obtained multiple corre lation of .657 indicates that these four variables account for 43 percent of the variance of the accident variable, which is direct confirmation of hypothesis III. TABLE 4 FACTOR LOADINGS OF 21 VARIABLES ON THREE FACTORS LOS ANGELES COUNTY, 1970 Factor I Factor II Factor III Variables Psycho-Somatic Poverty Punitive Factor Factor Factor Major Traffic Accidents .678 -.214 .095 Sickness .560 -.082 .219 Negative Self-Concept .626 -.029 .026 Lack of Tolerance for Ambiguity .645 -.084 .042 Status Inconsistency .677 .106 .033 Financial Strain .230 .341 .212 Low Income -.143 .636 .037 Low Occupation -.088 .542 .065 Unemployment -.032 .450 .069 Low Education -.067 .346 .073 Occupational Instability .118 .371 .150 Lack of Distributive Justice .101 .479 -.038 Lack of Communication with Others .047 .594 -.082 Lack of Satisfaction with Job -.010 .399 .054 Problem Drinking .093 -.061 .373 Drunk Driving Offenses .032 .085 .686 Moving Traffic Offenses .096 .116 .419 Police Arresting Behavior .104 -.145 .357 Institutional Care .204 .232 .425 Alcohol Related Criminal Arrests -.019 .143 .560 Non-Alcohol Related Criminal Arrests .092 .161 .551 Total Number of Cases=250 to 73 Psycho-Somatic Stress Table 5 provides data by which sub-hypothesis 1 can be tested. There are significant differences between the acci dent-involved drunk driver and the accident-free drunk driver on each of the psycho-somatic stress components. The accident-involved drunk driver group has greater problems with sickness, negative self-concept, lack of tolerance for ambiguity, and status inconsistency than does the accident-free drunk driver group. Therefore, sub-hypothesis 1 is supported. TABLE 5 PSYCHO-SOMATIC STRESS AND ACCIDENT-INVOLVED AND ACCIDENT-FREE DRIVERS IN A DRUNK DRIVER SAMPLE, LOS ANGELES COUNTY, 1970 Components of P sycho-Somatic Drunk Drivers Mean Difference t test P Stress Acc ident-Involved Accident-Free (N=72) (N=78) Mean Sd. Mean Sd. Sickness 2.60 1.02 1.47 0.92 1.13 7.020 <\0005 Negative Self- Concept 3.32 1.12 1.64 0.72 1.68 10.718 <^.0005 Lack of Tolerance <^.0005 for Ambiguity 3.97 0.80 3.07 1.10 0.90 5.674 Status <^.0005 Inconsistency 3.26 1.22 2.43 0.96 0.83 4.555 75 Table 6 provides the data with which sub-hypothesis 2 can be evaluated. Again the accident-involved group differentiates greater problems on each of the compo nents: sickness, negative self-concept, lack of toler ance for ambiguity, and status inconsistency, and the differences between the two groups are significant. Table 7 and 8 indicate that there is little difference between drunk drivers and general drivers on the psycho-somatic variables within accident-free and within accident-involved drivers - the one variable which does distinguish between the two samples in both accident-involved and accident-free groups is negative self-concept. The fact that the drunk driver group provided information with respect to this variable shortly after being convicted of a crime, while the general driver group did so on completing a license application, could well explain the slight difference observed. It should be reiterated, however, that this self-concept variable, as do the others, does distinguish between accident-involved and accident-free drivers in both the drunk and general driver samples. TABLE 6 PSYCHO-SOMATIC STRESS AND ACCIDENT-INVOLVED AND ACCIDENT-FREE DRIVERS IN A GENERAL DRIVER SAMPLE, LOS ANGELES COUNTY, 1970 Components of General Drivers Mean Psycho-Somatic Stress Accident-Involved Accident-Free Difference t test P (N=47) (N=53) Mean Sd. Mean Sd. Sickness 2.28 1.06 1.40 0.79 0.88 4.615 <[.0005 Negative Self- Concept 2.66 1.59 1.38 0.71 1.28 5.034 <^.0005 Lack of Tolerance for Ambiguity 4.15 0.59 2.85 0.79 1.30 9.268 <^0005 Status Inconsistency 3.66 1.32 2.45 0.84 1.21 5.302 <^.0005 C T * TABLE 7 PSYCHO-SOMATIC STRESS AND DRUNK DRIVERS AND GENERAL DRIVERS IN AN ACCIDENT-INVOLVED DRIVER SAMPLE, LOS ANGELES COUNTY, 1970 Components of Accident-Involved Drivers Mean Psycho-Somatic Siress Drunk Drivers General Drivers Difference t test P (N=72) (N=47) Mean Sd. Mean Sd. Sickness 2.60 1.02 2.28 1.06 0.32 1.626 n.s. Negative Self-Concept 3.32 1.12 2.66 1.59 0.66 2.444 <.005 Lack of Tolerance for Ambiguity 3.97 0.80 4.15 0.59 -0.18 -1.369 n.s. Status Inconsistency 3.26 1.22 3.66 1.32 -0.40 -1.627 n.s. <1 TABLE 8 PSYCHO-SOMATIC STRESS AND DRUNK DRIVERS AND GENERAL DRIVERS IN AN ACCIDENT-FREE DRIVER SAMPLE, LOS ANGELES COUNTY, 1970 Components of Accident-Free Drivers Mean P sycho-Somatic Stress Drunk Drivers General Drivers Difference t test P (N=78) (N=53) Mean Sd. Mean Sd. Sickness 1.47 0.92 1.40 0.79 0.07 0.513 n.s. Negative Self-Concept 1.64 0.72 1.38 0.71 0.26 2.051 <•025 Lack of Tolerance for Ambiguity 3.07 1.10 2.85 0.79 0.22 1.364 n.s. Status Incon s i s tency 2.43 0.96 2.45 0.84 -0.02 -0.105 n.s. 79 i Poverty Stress Sub-hypothesis 3 proposed that within the accident- free group there would be significant differences bet ween the drunk and the general driver on.poverty stress ! variables. Table 9 shows the extent to which this is true. There are significant differences between the means of drunk and general drivers on each variable associated with poverty, and these differences are all in the predicted direction. Convicted drunk drivers who are accident-free are poorer than accident-free general j drivers on an number of dimensions. Therefore, sub- , hypothesis 3 is supported. TABLE 9 POVERTY STRESS AND DRUNK DRIVERS AND GENERAL DRIVERS IN AN ACCIDENT-FREE DRIVER SAMPLE, LOS ANGELES COUNTY, 1970 Components Accident-Free Drivers Mean of Poverty Stress Drunk Drivers General Drivers Difference t test P (N==78) (N==53) Mean Sd. Mean Sd. Financial Strain 1.54 0.75 1.23 0.50 0.31 2.821 <.005 Low Income 1.64 0.48 1.34 0.48 0.30 3.498 <0005 Lack of Distri butive Justice 3.63 1.17 2.60 1.21 1.03 4.762 <0005 Lack of Communica tion with others 3.67 1.20 2.57 0.93 1.10 5.847 <.0005 Lack of Satisfac tion with Job 1.46 0.50 1.13 0.34 0.33 4.435 < 0005 Low Occupation 2.51 0.86 1.87 0.94 0.64 3.944 <0005 co o CONTINUED: TABLE 9 POVERTY STRESS AND DRUNK DRIVERS AND GENERAL DRIVERS IN AN ACCIDENT-FREE DRIVER SAMPLE, LOS ANGELES COUNTY, 1970 Components of Poverty Stress Accident- Drunk Drivers (N=78) Free Drivers General Drivers (N=53) Mean Difference t test P Mean Sd. Mean Sd. Unemployment 1.40 0.52 1.19 0.39 0.21 2.591 -<[.005 Low Education 1.81 0.40 1.58 0.50 0.23 2.701 <[".005 Occupational <^.0005 Instability 1.46 0.53 1.11 0.32 0.35 4.665 I 82 ! Punitive Stress Similarly, table 10 shows that there are significant differences between these two driver groups on the punitive stress variables. The accident-free drunk driver group has significantly more drunk driving offenses, moving traffic offenses, police arresting behavior, institutional care, alcohol-related criminal arrests as well as non-alcohol-related criminal arrests. Sub-hypothesis 4 can therefore also be accepted. ! TABLE 10 PUNITIVE STRESS AND DRUNK DRIVERS AND GENERAL DRIVERS IN AN ACCIDENT-FREE DRIVER SAMPLE, LOS ANGELES COUNTY, 1970 Components Accident-Free Drivers Mean of Punitive Stress Drunk Drivers General Drivers Difference t test P (N==78) (N=53) Mean Sd. Mean Sd. Drunk Driving Offenses 2.38 0.67 1.06 0.31 1.32 15.153 <.0005 Moving Traffic Offenses 2.42 1.56 1.66 1.07 0.76 3.291 <^.0005 Police Arresting Behavior 1.55 1.00 1.04 0.19 0.51 4.379 •<^0005 Institutional Care 1.31 0.46 1.08 0.27 0.23 3.596 <^.0005 Criminal Arrests- Alcohol Related 1.63 1.12 1.06 0.30 0.57 4.258 <^.0005 Criminal Arrests- Non-Alcohol Related 1.81 1.36 1.11 0.58 0.7 0 3.984 <^0005 84 Accident-Involved versus Accident-Free Drivers Having established the validity of the major hypo theses, the remainder of this chapter examines in depth, the psycho-somatic stress variables and the accident- involved driver and the accident-free driver, irrespec tive of the sample from which they were drawn. There are four components of psycho-somatic stress. They are sickness, negative self-concept, lack of tolerance for ambiguity, and status inconsistency. Each will be examined separately. Sickness Table 11 shows that the accident-involved driver is more likely to be physically sick than the accident-free driver. Eighty-four percent of the acci dent-involved driver group have scores of 2 or more, indicating some physical illness, while only 26 percent of the accident-free driver group have similar scores, a remarkable difference of 58 percent. This variable by itself could be of great predictive utility in discrimi nating between accident-involved and accident-free drivers. TABLE 11 SICKNESS AND ACCIDENT-INVOLVED DRIVERS AND ACCIDENT-FREE DRIVERS, LOS ANGELES COUNTY, 1970 Accident- Involved Drivers (N=119) Accident- Free Drivers (N=131) Percent Difference Chi Square test Percent Number Percent Number Sickness - Scale Low 1 16.0% 19 74.0% 97 -58.0% 84.6296 (p <C^.001 with 2 40.3 48 13.0 17 27.3 4 degrees of freedom) 3 30.3 36 9.2 12 21.1 - 4 7.6 9 2.3 3 5.3 High 5 5.8 7 1.5 2 4.3 100.0% 119 100.0% 131 G O U1 86 Negative Self-Concept Table 12 shows the difference i dimension on negative self-concept between the accident- j involved driver and the accident-free driver. Sixty- four percent of the accident-involved driver group have scores ranging from 3 to 5 on this variable, while only j i I 11 percent of the accident-free driver group have the ! | same scores; again, a remarkable difference. Lack of Tolerance for Ambiguity Table 13 describes differences between the accident-involved driver and the accident-free driver on the variable of lack of tolerance for ambiguity. ■ I The accident-involved drivers have higher scores on i this variable than the accident-free drivers. This means that the accident-involved driver has much less tolerance for ambiguity than the accident-free driver. Table 13 shows that 80 percent of the accident-involved drivers have scores of 4 and 5, while only 27 percent of the accident-free driver group have such scores. The difference between these two groups is highly signifi cant statistically. « TABLE 12 NEGATIVE SELF-CONCEPT AND ACCIDENT-INVOLVED DRIVERS AND ACCIDENT-FREE DRIVERS, LOS ANGELES COUNTY, 1970 Accident- Involved Drivers (N=119) Accident- Free Drivers (N=131) Percent Difference Chi Square test Percent Number Percent Number Negative Self- Concept - Low 1 17.6% 21 58.8% 77 -41.2% 76.7989 (p <C.001 with 2 17.6 21 30.5 40 -12.9 4 degrees of freedom) 3 24.4 29 9.2 12 15.2 4 21.9 26 1.5 2 20.4 High 5 18.5 22 0 0 18.5 100.0% 119 100.0% 131 00 'J TABLE 13 LACK DRIVERS OF TOLERANCE FOR AMBIGUITY AND ACCIDENT-INVOLVED AND ACCIDENT-FREE DRIVERS, LOS ANGELES COUNTY, 1970 * Accident- Involved Drivers (N=119) Accident- Free Drivers (N=131) Percent Difference Chi Square test Percent Number Percent Number Lack of Tolerance for Ambiguity - Scale Low 1 0 0 4.6% 6 -4.6% 76.0657 2 3.3% 4 27.5 36 -24.2 (p -<^001 with 4 degrees of 3 16.8 20 41.2 54 -24.4 freedom) 4 53.8 64 21.4 28 32.4 High 5 26.1 31 5.3 7 20.8 100.0% 119 100.0% 131 oo 00 89 j Status Inconsistency Table 14 shows how accident- ; involved drivers and accident-free drivers compare on the variable of status inconsistency. This table shows I that status inconsistency is greater for accident- ; involved drivers than for accident-free drivers. In ; other words, the accident-involved drivers have stronger feeling of discrepancy between their status expectations ; and reality than as the accident-free drivers. Fifty percent of the accident-involved drivers have scores of 4 or 5, by contrast with only 13 percent of the acci- ; dent-free drivers having the same scores. Tables 11, 12, 13, and 14 show how the sickness, ■ negative self-concept, lack of tolerance for ambiguity, | and status inconsistency components of psycho-somatic j stress are associated with the accident-involved driver group. In each case, the difference.between the two dri ver groups was statistically significant, with percen tage differences on categories of 37 to 58 percent. These differences coupled with linear multiple correla tion of .657, suggest that these four variables could account for a very significant amount of the variance of traffic accidents. TABLE 14 STATUS INCONSISTENCY AND ACCIDENT-INVOLVED DRIVERS AND ACCIDENT-FREE DRIVERS, LOS ANGELES COUNTY, 1970 Accident- Involved Drivers (N=119) Accident- Free Drivers (N=131) Percent Difference Chi Square test Percent Number Percent Number Status Inconsistency - Scale Low 1 9.2% 11 14.5% 19 -5.3% 49.1770 (p-<l . 001 with 2 15.1 18 39.7 52 -24.6 4 degrees of freedom) 3 26.1 31 32.8 43 -6.7 4 27.7 33 12.2 16 15.5 High 5 21.9 26 0.8 1 21.1 100.0% 119 100.0% 131 KD O 91 Summary Three fundamental findings have been presented in this chapter. First, traffic accidents are no more and no less frequent among the drinking driver group, than they are among the general driver group. Second, drinking patterns do not differentiate the drunk driver group from the general driver, group when non-drinkers are eliminated from the latter. Third, psycho-somatic stress variables have been found to distinguish the accident- involved driver group from the accident-free driver group, irrespective of drunk driving involvement. And finally, the variables associated poverty and punitive stress do distinguish the accident-free drunk driver group from the accident-free general driver group. CHAPTER VII DISCUSSION - POLICY AND ADMINISTRATION | | Introduction | This chapter discusses the implications for admini- I I | strative approaches to drinking and traffic accidents in ; the light of the findings of this research. The dis- l 1 cussion is directed first to policy change with a focus on the objectives of coordinating the management of drunk driving offenses, minor traffic offenses, alcoholic institutions, and coping with the conditions leading to : psycho-somatic, poverty and punitive stress. , Second, under the heading of strategic administra tive approaches, consideration is given to the employ- ! ment of management techniques, the systems approach, j development of an accident data bank, and other specific programs directed to the amelioration of the problems with which this study was concerned. Policy Change The problems associated with the present policy making processes can be analyzed from the perspective of the three significant classes of stress on which this study was concentrated. The possible solution of these problems can then be considered within the framework of the empirical findings of this research. ______________________ 92,__________________ Policymaking processes involve a whole spectrum of | values. These values are expressed in or through insti tutional arrangements. The present policies for the reduction of traffic accidents are characterized by inc- rementalism, satisficism, heuristicism, and economic rationalism and are largely based on inadequate empirical i evidence. Those items of empirical evidence that are j used, are limited to the results of laboratory experi- j ments with alcohol which have led to policies which | control the use of alcohol, and evade the complete social! context which must be considered in reducing traffic ! accidents. j Second, the institutional arrangements which express values, are maintained through a series of I decisions about action choices. An "ideal" decision in selecting among alternatives is based on empirical information. When action choices are made independently of information the generation of social stress among individual motorists will be greater than when action choices are based on adequate information. Information, in general, is a collection of propositions whose truth value is expressed in terms of probabilities. Traffic accident management requires action choices about uncer tain phenomena (on decisions under uncertainty) which can be most effectively dealt with by information obtained through empirical observations. The present policies are made in the absence of any systematic or coherent empirical data, thus resulting in ineffective administrative procedures. Such pro cedures might well exacerbate the alienation of the 52 percent of the drunk drivers who had never been involved in traffic accidents for one example. And from the results of this study it would appear that the economi cally deprived, the poor, are those who receive the most 1 damaging and the most inappropriate treatment. Third, information must be related to the desired ends. An ideal condition of what-should-be, or a desi- j rable objective in respect to traffic management, is the maintenance of human lives and property on the highway. Fourth, the generation of information through political processes is impossible. Information based on political activities can best be described as arti ficial. Therefore, policies for the reduction of traffic accidents must be "beyond politics," a require ment which demands that intellectuals guide the develop ment of information. There are behavioral and methodo logical techniques available at universities and other 95 knowledge industries which can facilitate acquisition of ; j reliable and valid information on which policy can be based. i j ! Fifth, the political process is a barrier to the 1 | participation of information generators in the development I j of actual policies, partly because the present policy- j ; making institutions exclude these information generators, : and partly because these information generators are defensive about their exclusion. The findings presented in the last chapter can be considered to be contributions to empirical bases for I policies about traffic management. This implementation recommendation for policies which are responsive to j j these findings will be dealt with in four broad areas: | decriminalization of drunk driving offenses; elimination of minor cases from the courts; coordination of programs for alcoholics} and coordination of medicare, manpower development, war on poverty and other programs already in operation, which, are directed toward more fundamental problems, and likely to have more fundamental effects than narrow programs concerned with drinking drivers. Decriminalization of Drunk Driving Offenses It can be seriously questioned whether drunk drivers should continue to be treated as criminals. 96 \ Table 1 showed that drunk drivers account for no I more than their proportionate share of traffic accidents. Table 2 showed that the drinking patterns of social drinkers and problem drinkers do not differentiate the drunk driver group from the general driver group, except i for non-drinkers in the latter group, who, in any case | i i have the same number of accidents as their drinking ! counterparts. The drinking patterns of the drunk driver and the general driver groups are also unrelated to traf fic accidents as demonstrated in Table 3. These empirical findings would appear to be serious enough to consider a policy change of decriminalizing the drunk driving j offenses. j Several consequences of such a step can be antici pated. First of all, the number of traffic accidents will neither increase nor decrease as a result of this legal action of decriminalization alone. The present rate of traffic accident occurrences will persist because acci dents can be caused by any driver, not just by drivers who have been convicted for drunk driving. Second, if decriminalization of drunk driving is accompanied by reasonable control of psycho-somatically ill persons on the highways, a reduction of traffic 97 j accident can be expected. ! Third, the release from jails or penitentiaries of | those with alcoholic problems will result in requirements for other institutional resources for those who need and want help. Present institutional capacities will not be able to accommodate the additional number of problem i | alcoholics. However, because the primary stresses on ; these people in jails or penitentiaries are poverty and punishment, perhaps the coordination of many existing programs relating to poverty will offset some of the problems of alcoholism. Fourth, since drunk driving offenses constitute the fourth largest category of arrests in many large j American cities, the decriminalization will provide tremendous savings, perhaps millions of dollars, in the form of released manpower and materials from law enforce ment agencies, courts, departments of motor vehicles and corrections agencies. Fifth, the most significant contribution of decri minalization is that it would provide opportunities for otherwise convicted individuals to engage in activities which could exploit their potential, and thereby demonst rate that these human beings need not be controlled by brute force. This would be another recognition that man has one unique quality: he can create on his own, and ! thus mirror something in the creation itself, In the | word of Eiseley, ! I like to look at life in its complex variety I as being more representative of the image of God than the conception of Him as simply operating through us (Eiseley, 1970) . i . | Elimination of Minor Cases If fines for minor traffic offenses are designed as j a major source of county revenue, it can be argued that j this policy should continue. If drivers violate the laws, they should be obliged to make restitution. i However, since these offenses are more strongly associa- i ted with the accident-free drunk driver group than with | the accident-free general driver group, as shown in | j i Table 10, and this variable of minor traffic offenses i j is only slightly correlated with major traffic accidents, as indicated in Table 4, it is a policy which is unlikely to affect accident rates, and is likely to result in private insurance companies increasing premiums, result ing in increased stress for "negligent" operators defined by the Department of Motor Vehicles, who turn out to be the poor and the punished, not the accident-prone driver. The consequences of the elimination of minor cases as offenses would not only be to reduce individual 99 i stress, but also would contribute significantly to the simplification of bureaucratic complexity. With respect to traffic accident occurrences, there would be no impact. Coordination of Alcoholic Institutions The history of approaches to the solution of pro blem of alcoholism is as old as the history of man's civilization. The rational coordination of institutions j to serve alcoholics, if not so ancient, is at least as difficult. This coordination can be considered from two j points of views: one from the standpoint of traffic safety, and the other from the standpoint of alcoholism I as illness. I | Prom the standpoint of traffic safety, according to I j the findings of this research, alcoholism has no signi ficant effect on major traffic accidents. Table 3 illustrates this point by indicating that there are no significant relations between the condition of being a problem alcoholic and the drunk driver on the general driver groups. If alcoholism is regarded as an illness, as a behavioral disorder causing some physical, social, or economic disability, the control of alcoholism from an institutional point of view requires considerable invest ment of professional service. Even though there are a 100 number of public and private alcoholic treatment and rehabilitation services, including hospitals and clinics, these institutions treat less than one percent of the alcoholics at a given time (Hayman, 1966). One of the reasons that they have been unable to treat more might be attributed to the ineffective utilization of available resources between and among these institutions. One suggestion in this regard would be to develop effective coordination by reorganizing departmentalization on the basis of function (Gulick and Urwick, 1937) so that duplication can be avoided and, at the same time, the available resources can be rearranged in line with specific functions. Coping with Psycho-Somatic Stress The findings presented in tables 11, 12, 13, and 14, show that major traffic accidents are significantly associated with motorists 1 problems on dimensions des cribed as comprising psycho-somatic stress. These motorists are somatically ill and evidence psycho-patho logical characteristics of destructive self-image, into lerance of ambiguity, and significant status inconsisten cy. These findings are given added meaning by the analyses which show that these psycho-somatic stress variables do not differentiate between the drunk driver 101 ! I 1 | group and the general driver group, either for those who j i have had one or more traffic accidents, or for those ! i I I | who had not been involved in any traffic accidents. | These psycho-somatic variables do differentiate the j accident-involved driver group from the accident-free : driver group when the drunk driver and the general driver groups are combined. j Major traffic accidents can be inferred to be caused j by those drivers who have problems on one or more of ; these psycho-somatic stress variables. Consequently, if | the number of traffic accidents is to be reduced, attempts; to cope with or resolve problems associated with these j j < psycho-somatic variables must somehow be devised. At the j : i ; i ; broadest and probably most meaningful level of analysis, j | this would require an examination of the nation's health j ! ' j ; care program. The United States is one of the most ! backward countries among the world's industrial nations so far as national health programs are concerned. Sweden | has operated a national health system since 1955, and Norway since 1956. Britain adopted its national health scheme in 1948. Paradoxically enough, American medical technology has advanced as rapidly as any where else in the world, while its technology for the care of people has advanced relatively slowly. In sheer dollars, the ; 102 | I ' i I | medical industry has become the second largest industry i I in the United States, turning over $67.2 billion, or ! 6.9 percent of the GNP in 1970 (Simmons, 1971), There fore, if the medical resources alone were somehow I I effectively utilized for their physical well-being, Americans would be the healthiest and, by inference from the result of this study, the safest driving people in j i the world. Sheer technological development does not i guarantee human well-being unless it is accompanied by j organizational capacity. I ; Coping with Poverty and Punitive Stress j The indicators of poverty and punitive stress have j ] j negligible relations to traffic accidents and yet are i I I more characteristic of the drunk driver group than of | the general driver group among those who are accident- free . i One inference from these findings might be that the condition of poverty may constitute a sufficient condition for punitive treatment from official agencies, although it may not be a sufficient condition to lead individual motorists into proportionately greater share of the damage inflicted on others as a consequence of accidents. All of the indicators of poverty stress, financial 103 ! strain, low income, lack of distributive justice, lack 1 j of communication with others, lack of satisfaction with j job, low occupation, unemployment, low education, and j I occupational instability, are more characteristic of | the drunk driver group than of the general driver group. Similarly, indicators of punitive stress, drunk driving | offenses, moving traffic offenses, police arresting j : I behavior, institutional care, and criminal arrests, are i more characteristic of the drunk driver group than of l the general driver group. i 1 I The results of these findings indicate that, ; t because the stresses caused by poverty ultimately lead j I to criminal activities as well as traffic offenses, the ! i i real causes of crime m these cases as well as of their I multiple traffic offenses are likely to be poverty and its associated problems. Poverty environments may well be analyzed in terms of the Mertonian "socially struc tured strain" which ultimately leads to crime (Merton, 1968). Many public programs are designed to improve living conditions of the poor, such as manpower development and war on poverty. A serious question can be raised, not as to the definition of the problem, but as to procedures to reduce the stress associated with poverty. Of course, 104 i ; i ; I there is no shortage of ideas or prescriptive sugges- j | tions to improve the lot of the poor. Yet, as students i of contemporary organizations are well aware, the con dition of the poor is a manifest result of disorganiza- | tional processes which keep the poor in their place. | Sjoberg poignantly deplored this condition in which j •public agencies, operating under a whole set of mecha- ! i ! I nisms that appear designed to keep the poor in their I place (Sjoberg, 1966) . Major stresses result from | i ■ management failure to be aware of the built-in social distance between public servants and the poor. Even professionals accept this situation. They justify, with I | arguments, their lack of intimate contact with poor clients. In addition, any strong identification with poor clients is nonprofessional. The public servants or the bureaucrats also accept this situation by justifying to themselves that such an identification would make it impossible to sustain the ideal of universalistic norms and classless justice of bureaucratic organizations. These bureaucrats in the lower echelons are ex pected to have the most contact with the poor. They are the ones who are most encumbered by rules and regulations and hence, find it extremely difficult to step outside the legalistic boundaries and have empathy with the 105 | i poverty group. I It is fairly obvious that the poor person has the j t I ! least knowledge of what is required by public agencies, I ! and yet he has no choice except to expose himself to the | lower echelon bureaucrat who is much like a mechanically ; j i designed robot constrained by petty rules and regulations, j i i ! ' ! ; The problem is compounded by the fact that each bureau- | crat treats only a particular tiny segment of a person's i : total life - the breathalyzer test, the person's vulgar ! language, or whatever. This kind of interaction may well ' result in the lack of communication with others, and ! lack of distributive justice which characterize the drunk | i ; driver group of this study. ; : i These are clearly issues of relevance to establishing i ! i i j I most effective policies which more adequately reflect the j i i values of society. There are, nevertheless, specific j steps and procedures which can be suggested for the solution of the problems of concern. The following section discusses some of these. Strategic Administrative Approaches Strategic administrative approaches refer to employ ment of management techniques, involving the systems approach, development of data banks, the role of profes sionals, and organization development. 106 One popular approach to the solution of complex j ! problems is called the systems approach in which a system j j is considered to be something more than the sum of its j i : various parts. If traffic accidents are defined as j I j systems failure from a total transportation system point ! ■ of view, then various subparts of the triad of that sys- j tem, including drivers, cars, and roadways, must be care- ‘ fully identified. This approach requires a step-wise delineation of purpose or purposes, input, process, output; and feedback. In the words of Ludwig von Bertlanffy, a systems analysis is to "investigate the isomorphy of concepts, laws, and models in various fields and promote the unity of science through improving communication | among specialists" (von Bertlanffy, 1968). A systems j analysis can still be questioned for conducting investi- | gations within closed contexts, and thus being insensitive to changes in the environment within which it operates. Klein's system rates approach is perhaps suggestive in this regard: a continuous search is made of the changes in rates between identified variables over a span of time (Klein, 1970) . The implementation of a system rates approach requires collaboration of huge institutions' efforts, together with the application of behavioral and computer technology. i 107 i Even supposing that an adequate systems analysis j has been carried out and that its prescriptions result in a systems rate approach, the successful management of stress remains a difficult task. It requires more than the conglomeration of several separate disciplines. It | ! I : l | requires the active role of professional administrators j who can assume the responsibility for changing organiza tions . One way in which they can change involves the j ! development of an accident data bank under conditions of | security that protects personal rights. At present, | there is no way even to list accidents in Los Angeles I County. There are a number of organizations such as National Safety Council, California Highway Patrol, va- j rious police departments, private insurance companies, courts, and research institutions which, to some extent, handle accident data. The California Highway Patrol is engaged in field investigations of traffic accidents, and received traffic accident reports from various police departments. These traffic accident reports are provided on between 25 to 30 different reporting forms, a condition which probably raises more serious problems for purposes of research or for clear comprehension of traffic acci dents than it resolves. Common reporting procedures 108 ! would seem to be imperative whether this is accomplished j | through a centralized records system or through the | reorganization of existing procedures. Summary This chapter has discussed policy change and stra- i tegic administrative approaches to the problems and con- i ditions inferred frrm the findings of the preceeding ; chapter. i The discussion of policy change was oriented to means by which improvements in decision-making could help | resolve the complex problems associated with traffic acci dents. Some of the suggestions included decriminalization! of drunk driving offenses, elimination of minor traffic | offenses, and coordination of the role of institutions | i for alcoholics. Administrative approaches have been discussed strictly in terms of strategies rather than tactics or prescriptions. The employment of management techniques, systems analysis, an accident data bank, and institution alization of a central accident managing mechanism, were discussed as strategic approaches to the solution of the problem of public policy and dysfunctional administrative mechanisms in the example of drunk drivers and traffic accidents. CHAPTER VIII i i ! CONCLUSION i 1 ! S In the past traffic accidents were attributed to bad luck or to the visitations of some malevolent deity. More recently, many accidents have been attributed to i drunkenness. As a consequence a number of institutions : and procedures concerned with drunkenness have been adopted and have resulted in what might be 1 called manage ment paralysis, with little effect on the accident pro blem. i | The control of drunkenness alone would appear to be ! ! a questionable approach to the management of traffic j ! j | accidents. Drunk drivers were not involved in more than ! | their proportionate share of accidents. Public policy with respect to drunkenness and accidents, has been preoccupied with a narrow and conser vative rationalism in which "incremental" decisions were made to brand drunk drivers as criminals, and having done so adopted a "satisficing" policy such that blaming drunk drivers for accidents was regarded as "good enough" for management of traffic accidents. Ultimately, these limited approaches have resulted in very serious problems. Highway violence, according to the National Highway Safety Bureau, is far and away the leading form of vio- 109 110 I lence in American life, and it exceeds by almost ten to j i i ; one all other crimes of violence combined (Haddon, 1968), | ! despite the fact that laws dealing with drunkenness occupy ! more space in American statute books than those dealing with homicide (Borkenstein, et al., 1964). This condition has resulted in a process of adjudicating traffic accident claims that is approaching a breakdown in the administra- ! tion of justice. j Empirical evidence from this research shows that the i psycho-somatic stress is strongly associated with traffic i I accidents, irrespective of whether or not the driver had I been convicted for drunk driving. Poverty and punitive ; i ; stress are not associated with accidents although they j | are with drunk drivers, and under present procedures are likely to lead to further alienation from the main stream of society of those drunk drivers who are convicted, but i i not likely to cause accidents. The management of traffic accidents is not something that can be solved once and for all, but is a continuous and unending process requiring an understanding of the complex interaction among drivers, cars, and roadways. It will require continuing revision in response to external changes. If a reduction in traffic accidents is to be ! Ill i | achieved, account must be taken of the kinds of stress to which drivers are exposed, and according to the findings of this study, the differential effects of psycho-somatic, poverty and punitive stress can serve as a point of departure for remedial action programs. Such ! action programs will require considerable institutional investment, as well as the involvement of knowledgeable ; men from a variety of disciplines and public agencies. Such institutional efforts must overcome, first of all, i naive and conservative approaches characteristic of the ! past. They require efforts which are "beyond politics." 1 Because accidents are individual phenomena, there are i unlikely to be any pressure or interest groups to support i | institutional efforts for traffic management. Therefore, it is essential that knowledgeable men and public admini strators be objective, take risks calculated on the basis of empirical evidence, and dedicate themselves to the ideal of saving human lives and property on the highways. 112 I REFERENCES i i ! 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Creator Hyun, Chang Kun (author)

Core Title Public Policy And Dysfunctional Administrative Mechanisms: The Example Of drunk Drivers And Traffic Accidents

Contributor Digitized by ProQuest (provenance)

Degree Doctor of Philosophy

Degree Program Public Administration

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag OAI-PMH Harvest,Political Science, public administration

Language English

Advisor McEachern, Alexander W. (committee chair), Adelman, Harvey M. (committee member), Nanus, Burt (committee member)

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c18-532509

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Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the au...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus, Los Angeles, California 90089, USA