INTERNATIONAL STATE-OF-THE-ART
Road traffic safety is a significant issue for society.
In the European Union there are approximately 45,000 fatalities per year.
At an assumed cost of 3.6million Euro per fatality, the total annual financial loss
can be estimated to be 162 million kEuro.
The majority of these accidents are caused by human error.
Driver impairment is a significant source of error.
Thus, Europe must develop a rational transport policy to support interventions
to reduce traffic accidents attributable to driver impairment.
IMPAIRMENT FACTORS
There are a number of types of impairment factor.
The effect of these impairment factors can be classified as either 'chronic' or
'acute' depending on the duration and source of the impairment.
The impairment from chronic factors is cumulative and persistent.
Such factors may be associated with the natural decline of performance
capability (i.e. driver fitness) related to ageing, or with the development of illness and
disease. In all these cases, the impairment effect is prevalent irrespective of
the consumption of a substance and may influence all aspects of life including driving.
The impairment from acute factors is immediate but transient.
For example, alcohol is recognised to be a significant source of driver
impairment related to accident risk. There is also evidence that drugs
and medicines may impair driver functioning. In all these cases, the impairment
effect results from the consumption (or deficit) of a substance that results in an
altered level of functioning (i.e. driver state) which has a limited duration, but may
be present while driving.
INTERVENTIONS
Legislation and enforcement of driver impairment based on detection is a common intervention
method for traffic safety. The form of detection that may be proposed is specific to the
type of impairment factor and the type of legislation considered. Two proposed forms of
detection are licensing assessment of (chronic) driver fitness and roadside testing of (acute)
driver state.
PROGRAMME OBJECTIVES
The aim of IMMORTAL is to provide evidence to propose intervention methods for driver
impairment, and support the future development of European policy governing driver impairment
legislation. The forms of intervention method considered will be licensing assessment
for chronic impairment of driver fitness, and roadside impairment assessment for acute
impairment of driver state:
At present, there is insufficient information to support policy and the development of
valid and standard protocols to evaluate driver impairment. On this basis, IMMORTAL has a
number of specific evidentiary objectives to support the stated aim. Investigate the influence
of chronic and acute impairment factors driving performance and accident risk;
Recommend criteria ('tolerance levels') for high risk categories of impairment;
Provide key information to support formulation of European policy on licensing assessment
and roadside testing.
PROJECT INNOVATIONS
IMMORTAL is innovative in terms of (i) the multi-disciplinary expertise and European
representation of the consortium, (ii) the range of impairment factors considered and the
comprehensive nature of the research; (iii) the inclusion of a User Representation Panel (URP)
comprised of relevant members of government ministries, enforcement agencies, and road user
associations from participant member states (see Appendix A) , (iv) the relevance to EU policy
and standardisation, (v) the range of research methodologies applied, (vi) the specification,
verification and exploitation of testing and assessment protocols, and (vii) the methods of
dissemination and exploitation of programme results:
PROJECT (TECHNICAL) RISK
The main sources of risk relate to the practicalities of access to the research resources (e.g.,
legal and practical issue of large sample testing in roadside surveys) and co-ordination of
the overall size of the proposed research programme. However, the prominence of the consortium
and the involvement of the URP should facilitate the necessary access to research resources.
Moreover, the management structures for IMMORTAL is expected to provide effective management
and critical appraisal of project risk. With the combined actions of these management
functions and a comprehensive Quality Assurance procedure, the project technical risk will
be minimised and contained.
