1957 Facts About Drinking and Driving Accidents Film

None for the Road is a drinking and driving educational film that kicks off by showing tests done on inebriated lab rats in order to prove that alcohol impairs the rats’ ability to perform certain motor skills. The same effects, the film claims, can be observed in humans who are under the influence. The film switches to the story of three friends at a party, each with a different approach to alcohol. One doesn’t drink at all, one drinks a moderate amount, and one absolutely binges. After the non-drinker discovers an accident while driving home, he fears for the life of his binge-drinking friend, only to find out from the cops that he’d been picked up already for weaving down the road. His relief turns to horror, though, when he finds out that it was his moderately drunk friend, Keith, who was in the accident instead. This film includes great footage of teenagers driving Aetna Drive-O-Trainers. Drunk driving arrests and drunk driving fatal accidents are a persistent problem today, and it's fascinating to see how this problem existed and was perceived in the 1950s. The effects of alcohol haven't changed, but Americans' perception of it has. Here the effects of alcohol are separate from the larger issues of alcoholism and substance abuse in general.