Driver’s Attitudes about the Impact of Caffeine and Energy Drinks on Road Traffic Safety
Abstract
Large amounts of energy drinks and caffeine, which is the main ingredient of energy drinks, produce a negative effect on the drivers, and therefore affect traffic safety.
In order to determine the attitudes of drivers toward the impact of energy drinks and caffeine, a research was conducted using a questionnaire form and the targeted group of the survey were drivers. The research was conducted in the City of Belgrade in December 2012. There were 420 survey papers distributed to drivers of different age groups of which 412 were returned. The survey was completely anonymous and consisted of two parts. The first part was related to basic demographic information about the respondents and it had 8 closed type questions. These questions were responded by circling one of the offered answers. The second part of the survey referred to determining the driver’s attitudes about energy drinks and caffeine. The second part consisted of 26 questions and respondents were to use a five-level scale in order to show to what extent they agree or disagree with any of the listed statements.
The results show that energy drinks are consumed mostly by young people, less than 25 years old. The effect of caffeine on gender is statistically significant. Headache is the reason why caffeine (25%) is consumed more than energy drinks (8%).
Major impact of energy drinks and caffeine on road safety indicates a required activity in this area such as education.
References
Reyner LA, Horne JA. Early morning driver sleepiness: effectiveness of 200 mg caffeine. Psychophysiol. 2000;37:251-256.
Dragač R, Vujanić M. Road safety, Faculty of Transport and Traffic Engineering, Belgrade; 2002.
Brice C, Smith A. The effects of caffeine on simulated driving, subjective alertness and sustained attention. Hum Psychopharmacol Clin Exp. 2001;16:523-531.
Regina EG, Smith GM, Keiper CG, McKelvey RK. Effects of caffeine on alertness in simulated automobile driving. J Appl Psychol. 1974;59:483-489.
Childs E, De Wit H. Subjective, behavioral, and physiological effects of acute caffeine in light, nondependent caffeine users. Psychopharmacol. 2006;185:514-523.
Haskell CF, Kennedy DO, Wesnes KA, Scholey AB. Cognitive and mood improvements of caffeine in habitual consumers and habitual non-consumers of caffeine. Psychopharmacol. 2005;179:813-825.
Zhang M, Bi LF, Ai YD, Yang LP, Wang HB, Liu ZY, Sekine M, Kagamimori S. Effects of taurine supplementation on VDT work induced visual stress. Amino Acids. 2004;26:59-63.
Shved DW, Godsey JL, Ledyard SL, Mahoney AP, Stetson PL, Ho S, et al. Absorption, tissue distribution, metabolism and elimination of taurine given orally to rats. Amino Acids. 2007;32:459-466.
Kim W. Debunking the effects of taurine in Red Bull Energy Drink. Nutr Bytes. 2003;9:1-7.
Warburton DM, Bersellini E, Sweeney E. An evaluation of a caffeinated taurine drink on mood, memory and information processing in healthy volunteers without caffeine abstinence. Psychopharmacol. 2001;158:322-328.
Seidl R, Peyrl A, Nicham R, Hauser E. A taurine and caffeine-containing drink stimulates cognitive performance and wellbeing. Amino Acids. 2000;19:635-642.
Reyner LA, Horne JA. Efficacy of a ‘functional energy drink’ in counteracting driver sleepiness. Physiology & Behavior. 2002;75:331-335.
Monique AJ, Ketzer S, Blom K, Maartje H, van Gerven, van Willigenburg G, Olivier B, Verster C. Positive effects of Red Bull® Energy Drink on driving performance during prolonged driving. Psychopharma. 2011;214:737-745.
Temple GJ, Warm SJ, Dember NW, Jones SK, LaGrange MC, Matthews G. The Effects of Signal Salience and Caffeine on Performance, and Stress in an Abbreviated Vigilance Task. Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society. 2000;42:183.
Yildirim CR. Caffeine consumption in drivers of heavy vehicles in Turkey. Journal of the Royal Institute of Public Health. 2003;117:329-332.
Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms:
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
