MONDAY, Sept. 16, 2002 (HealthDayNews) -- A new study bucks the image of the drunken driver as a hardcore alcoholic who can't keep himself off the road even if he endangers his life and that of others.
More than 40 percent of drivers killed in alcohol-related car wrecks don't have a history of problem drinking, the study says. Its authors suggest that strategies to cut down on drunken driving should cast a broader net than simply focusing on intransigent drinkers.
"Studies since the 1950s and 60s show that when you look at drivers with high [blood alcohol content] there's a whole mixture of people," said Allan Williams, chief scientist at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety and a co-author of the study. "But somehow we've gotten focused on the hardcore group -- which are there, but they're not the only part of the problem."
The findings appear this month in the journal Injury Prevention.
The researchers looked at blood alcohol content (BAC), drinking history, and other factors in 818 fatal crashes on U.S. roads in 1993.
Among the drivers whose BAC was 0.15 or higher -- nearly double the usual legal limit -- 68 percent had at least one sign of a history of alcohol abuse, Baker's group found. That share dropped off for motorists with lower BAC, to 41 percent among those with 0.1 to 0.14, and 32 percent among those with 0.01 to 0.09. It was 7 percent for drivers with a BAC of zero.
Interviews with the dead driver's spouse provided the most credible information about their drinking history before the fatal wreck. And they were best able to answer the most direct questions about their mate's alcohol habits. They were asked whether the spouses drove often after bingeing on five or more drinks, or whether they had a drinking problem in the month before they died
Roughly a fifth of the drivers with the highest BAC reading had both of these risk factors, according to their spouse, and 57 percent had one -- leaving 43 percent with no obvious long-term history of alcohol abuse.
"The thrust in the alcohol field is to go after the hardcore, problem-drinking group, which does exist. But while they do contribute, there's the whole spectrum of drinking drivers involved," Williams said.
Alcohol is implicated in about 30 percent of the 40,000-odd fatalities on America's roads each year, Williams said. Roughly 30 percent of drivers killed in car accidents have a BAC of 0.10 or above.
A BAC of 0.10 used to be the legal limit across United States, but in recent years most states have switched to a stricter standard of 0.08. Researchers credit the move with a drop in the number of alcohol-related traffic deaths, but how much is unclear. The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety estimates the reduction at between 5 percent and 8 percent.
Williams said studies show that sobriety checkpoints can cut the number of drunken drivers on the roads by 20 percent to 30 percent.
Carol McNamee, vice president of public policy for Mothers Against Drunk Driving, said the latest study confirms her group's approach to reducing the problem of intoxicated motorists.
"It corroborates our programs that deal with the higher-risk drivers," she said. "And it shows we are also correct in following other paths to decreasing drinking and driving on highways," such as promoting lower legal limits for blood alcohol and sobriety checkpoints.
McNamee noted that about a quarter of fatally injured drivers in the study with high BAC had been drinking at a bar before the accident. This suggests that targeting watering holes with designated-driver messages and server-education campaigns could have a sizable impact on preventing injuries and deaths, McNamee said.
What To Do
For more on drunk driving and how to prevent it, try the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety or Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
