An 80-year-old female patient presented in poor general condition, drowsy but responding to verbal commands. Medications given in the emergency room included cefotaxim, ranitidine, and vitamin K. Blood was sent for routine testing; serum total protein was 13.6 g/dL by the biuret method (reference interval, 6.1–7.9 g/dL). On visual inspection, the reaction mixture was brown instead of the usual ...

The situational factors associated with youthful driving while intoxicated (DWI) and riding with an impaired driver (RWID) are examined. Data were collected from separate samples of youth who had driven while impaired by alcohol and who had ridden with an alcohol-impaired driver. The purpose of the study was to determine whether there are consistent situational factors associated with DWI and R...

Alcohol availability has been linked to drunk driving, but research has not examined whether this relationship is the same for first-time and repeat offenses. We examined the relationship between the business hours of alcohol outlets licensed to serve alcohol for on-premises consumption and misdemeanor-level (first offense) and felony-level drunk driving (repeat offense) charges in New York Sta...

Driver drowsiness is a major, though elusive, cause of traffic crashes. As part of its IVHS/human factors program, NHTSA is supporting research to develop in-vehicle systems . to continuously monitor driver alertness and performance. Scientific support for the feasibility of this countermeasure concept is provided by research showing that: l Drowsy drivers typically do not “drop off’ instantane...

Visual cues were identified and procedures were developed to enhance on-the-road detection of driving while intoxicated (DWI) by police patrol officers. Related research was reviewed; police officers with demonstrated effectiveness in DWI detection were interviewed; DWI arrest reports were analyzed; and a study was conducted to determine the frequency of occurrence and relative discriminability...

This paper presents the method of detecting driver’s drowsiness level from the facial expression. The motivation for this research is to realize the novel safety system which can detect the driver’s slight drowsiness and keep the driver awake while driving. The brain wave is commonly used as the drowsiness index. However, it is not suitable for the in-vehicle system since it is measured with se...

BACKGROUND Due to a decreasing birth rate and longer life expectancy, the proportion of Americans over the age of 65 is expected to rise in coming years. Drivers over 65 drive two billion miles yearly, a number that will increase. For that reason, it is imperative to understand their attitudes and perceptions. It is also important to understand whether drivers over 65 can be treated as one cohe...