Drugs and Driving
Drugs and Driving
Injuries, especially from motor vehicle collisions, are the leading cause of death for individuals under age 44. The presence of alcohol is the factor most frequently associated with fatalities in vehicles, drownings, falls, and fire (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1987). In the first report to Congress on traffic safety and alcohol (U.S. Department of Transportation, 1968), it was concluded that more than 50 percent of fatal traffic collisions and 33 percent of serious injury traffic collisions were alcohol-related.
Although the association between alcohol consumption and traffic accidents had been recognized by the beginning of the twentieth century, the magnitude of the problem did not capture public attention until the 1970s. Public tolerance of Driving Under the Influence of alcohol decreased sharply—a shift in attitude that, combined with increased legal countermeasures, resulted in a significant decline in alcohol-related fatalities from a high of 57 percent in 1982 to 38 percent in 1998.
Voas et al. (1998) compared the relative frequency of driving under the influence of alcohol in three U.S. nationwide surveys, done in 1973, 1986, and 1996 on weekend nights. Drivers were stopped at random and asked to provide breath samples for alcohol testing. The blood alcohol concentration (BAC) levels were compared for the three surveys as a function of time, day, gender, age, ethnicity, geographical region, etc. Across nearly all population subgroups, the presence of alcohol in nighttime weekend drivers dropped from 36 percent in 1973 to 26 percent in 1986 to 17 percent in 1996. However, although the percent of decline for drivers with BACs below 0.10 percent was 54 percent from 1973 to 1996, there was only a 45 percent decline in drivers with over 0.10 percent BAC. Despite this significant drop in the number of alcohol impaired drivers in the last two and a half decades, alcohol still remains the single largest factor in traffic
Injuries, especially from motor vehicle collisions, are the leading cause of death for individuals under age 44. The presence of alcohol is the factor most frequently associated with fatalities in vehicles, drownings, falls, and fire (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 1987). In the first report to Congress on traffic safety and alcohol (U.S. Department of Transportation, 1968), it was concluded that more than 50 percent of fatal traffic collisions and 33 percent of serious injury traffic collisions were alcohol-related.
Although the association between alcohol consumption and traffic accidents had been recognized by the beginning of the twentieth century, the magnitude of the problem did not capture public attention until the 1970s. Public tolerance of Driving Under the Influence of alcohol decreased sharply—a shift in attitude that, combined with increased legal countermeasures, resulted in a significant decline in alcohol-related fatalities from a high of 57 percent in 1982 to 38 percent in 1998.
Voas et al. (1998) compared the relative frequency of driving under the influence of alcohol in three U.S. nationwide surveys, done in 1973, 1986, and 1996 on weekend nights. Drivers were stopped at random and asked to provide breath samples for alcohol testing. The blood alcohol concentration (BAC) levels were compared for the three surveys as a function of time, day, gender, age, ethnicity, geographical region, etc. Across nearly all population subgroups, the presence of alcohol in nighttime weekend drivers dropped from 36 percent in 1973 to 26 percent in 1986 to 17 percent in 1996. However, although the percent of decline for drivers with BACs below 0.10 percent was 54 percent from 1973 to 1996, there was only a 45 percent decline in drivers with over 0.10 percent BAC. Despite this significant drop in the number of alcohol impaired drivers in the last two and a half decades, alcohol still remains the single largest factor in traffic