Alcohol-Related Risk of Driver Fatalities: An Update Using 2007 Data

Abstract

ABSTRACT. Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine whether the relative risk of being involved in an alcohol-related crash has changed over the decade from 1996 to 2007, a period during which there has been little evidence of a reduction in the percentage of all fatal crashes involving alcohol. Method: We compared blood-alcohol information for the 2006 and 2007 crash cases (N = 6,863, 22.8% of them women) drawn from the U.S. Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) with control blood-alcohol data from participants in the 2007 U.S. National Roadside Survey (N = 6,823). Risk estimates were computed and compared with those previously obtained from the 1996 FARS and roadside survey data. Results: Although the adult relative risk of being involved in a fatal alcohol-related crash apparently did not change from 1996 to 2007, the risk for involvement in an alcohol-related crash for underage women has increased to the point where it has become the same as that for underage men. Further, the risk that sober underage men will become involved in a fatal crash has doubled over the 1996-2007 period. Conclusions: Compared with estimates obtained from a decade earlier, young women in this study are at an increased risk of involvement in alcohol-related crashes. Similarly, underage sober drivers in this study are more at risk of involvement in a crash than they were a decade earlier. (J. Stud. Alcohol Drugs, 73, 341-350, 2012)

Marijuana and Other Substance Use Among Motor Vehicle Operators: A Latent Class Analysis

“…For example, prior research has established the adverse impact of alcohol on driving performance (Blomberg et al, 2009;Borkenstein et al, 1974;Voas et al, 2012;Zador et al, 2000), and multiple-substance users are more likely than non-multiple-substance users to consume alcohol (Stinson et al, 2005). However, the propensity of researchers to lump all multiple-substance users together may inadvertently indicate that all multiple-substance users are equally dangerous and likely to consume alcohol regardless of the combination of substances.…”

Drinking and Parenting Practices as Predictors of Impaired Driving Behaviors Among U.S. Adolescents

“…For example, drivers younger than 21 with a positive blood alcohol concentration experienced twice the crash risk of those ages 25 and older (Peck et al, 2008). Novice teen drivers have especially high crash rates because of inexperience, contributing to the disproportionate effect on this population of driving while impaired by alcohol and/or other drugs (DWI; Peck et al, 2008;Voas et al, 2012).…”

“…For example, drivers younger than 21 with a positive blood alcohol concentration experienced twice the crash risk of those ages 25 and older (Peck et al, 2008). Novice teen drivers have especially high crash rates because of inexperience, contributing to the disproportionate effect on this population of driving while impaired by alcohol and/or other drugs (DWI; Peck et al, 2008;Voas et al, 2012).Current national prevalence estimates of teenage drinking and driving in the past month among 11th-grade students range from 9.1% (CDC, 2012) to 12.5% (Li et al, 2013), and two national studies found that 24% of high school students report riding with an impaired driver (RWI) in the past month (CDC, 2012) or in the past year (Li et al, 2013). The National Roadside Survey conducted for the National Highway Traffi c Safety Administration in 2007 found that, among drivers ages 16-20 tested at night, 16.1% tested positive for drugs other than alcohol (based on oral fl uids) and 7.2% tested positive for alcohol (based on breath alcohol measurements) (Lacey et al, 2009a(Lacey et al, , 2009b.…”

A better path to progress on drunk driving

“…This is certainly true when 0.05 BAC is compared to risk levels at 0.15 and above. However, what is lost in this argument is that lowering the BAC limit for driving in the United States and abroad has typically affected these high BAC drivers just as much as drivers with low BACs [4][5][6][7]. This is one of the reasons that we are recommending the 0.05 BAC limit, because it has been proven to reduce the frequency of high BAC (>0.15) drivers in fatal crashes and serves as a general deterrent to drinking and driving.…”

“…However, there was no significant increase in driving while intoxicated (DWI) arrests when states lowered their limits from 0.10 to 0.08 in the 1990s and up to 2003 [8]. Lowering the BAC limit to 0.05 reduces the proportion of drivers on the roads who are impaired by alcohol, whether they are at 0.05, 0.08, 0.10 or 0.15 and greater [5,6].…”