NCJ Number
158875
Date Published
1995
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This document provides estimates of alcohol involvement in fatal traffic crashes for the United States and individually for the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico (not included in the national totals).
Abstract
Known Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) test results are not available for all drivers and nonoccupants involved in fatal crashes. To address the missing data issue, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) developed and employed a statistical model to estimate the involvement of alcohol in a fatal crash. Data presented herein include both known and estimated BACs. Factors affecting alcohol involvement in fatal crashes include: (1) Population demographics and the economic environment (older and female drivers exhibit lower levels of alcohol involvement, drivers of older vehicles and pedestrians exhibit high levels); (2) Degree of urbanization (alcohol involvement in single- and multi-vehicle crashes tends to be greater in urban fatal crashes, while alcohol involvement in nonoccupant fatal crashes is higher in rural areas), and: (3) Types of vehicles (alcohol involvement is at a high level among motorcycle drivers, followed by drivers of light trucks/vans, with drivers of medium and heavy trucks exhibiting the lowest level). Nationwide in 1994: (1) alcohol was involved in 40.8 percent of the traffic fatalities, translating to 16,589 alcohol-related fatalities; (2) alcohol was present in 25.4 percent of the drivers involved in fatal crashes; (3) among fatally injured drivers, 69.3 percent had BAC test results; among surviving drivers, 23.7 percent had BAC test results. There are graphics summarizing State-Level estimates of the percentages of fatalities that were alcohol related in 1982 and 1994 and the estimated percentage of drivers with high alcohol blood count who were involved in fatal crashes.