Perspectives in Disease Prevention and Health Promotion Alcohol-
Related Traffic Fatalities during Christmas and New Year Holidays
--
United States, 1978-1984
Analyses of data from the Fatal Accident Reporting System
(FARS)
for 1978-1984 reveal that alcohol-related traffic deaths tend to be
higher during the Christmas and New Year holiday periods* than
during
the year as a whole. Three sets of comparisons were made for the 7
years of data: the absolute number of alcohol-related traffic
deaths,
the percentage of alcohol-related deaths, and the number of
alcohol-related deaths per 24 hours occurring during the two
holiday
periods and the 12-month periods. A death was considered
alcohol-related if at least one driver had a positive blood-alcohol
concentration test result** (1) or if the investigating officer
judged
that alcohol was involved.
During the years 1978-1984, the total number of alcohol-related
traffic deaths ranged from 17,861 to 21,114 per year. Over these 7
years, both the number of traffic deaths per 24 hours and the
proportion of alcohol-related traffic deaths were generally higher
for
the two holiday periods than for the year as a whole. Both the
total
number of traffic deaths and the number of alcohol-related traffic
deaths per 24 hours for the holidays and the 12-month periods
declined
from 1980 to 1983. In 1984, the number of alcohol-related traffic
deaths increased for both the two holiday periods and the 12-month
period; in addition, the proportion of alcohol-related traffic
deaths
increased during the Christmas holiday period but not the New Year.
Reported by MB Grigson, T Zobeck, PhD, G Williams, DEd, Alcohol
Epidemiologic Data System, CSR, Incorporated, D Bertolucci, MA, Div
of
Biometry and Epidemiology, National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and
Alcoholism, Washington, D.C.; Epidemiologic Studies Br, Div of
Surveillance and Epidemiologic Studies, Epidemiology Program
Office,
CDC.
Editorial Note
Editorial Note: The proportion of all traffic deaths that are
alcohol-related is generally higher during the holidays than at
other
times (2). Data collected by Iowa, for example, show that the
alcohol
involvement rate for 1978 through 1983 was 50%-60% for the New Year
holiday period and over 60% for the Christmas holiday. In
contrast,
during 1983, 49% of all Iowa traffic fatalities were
alcohol-related
(3).
The National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration are collaborating in
a
public and private, state and federal prevention effort centered
around this year's "National Drunk and Drugged Driving Awareness
Week," December 15-21, 1985. They have prepared public service
announcements for television and radio that will be available for
state and local use during the holidays. A similar effort in
Maryland
has previously been successful in preventing alcohol-related
traffic
fatalities (4).
References
CDC. Patterns of alcohol use among teenage drivers in fatal
motor
vehicle accidents--United States, 1977-1981. MMWR
1983;32:344-7.
CDC. Temporal patterns of motor-vehicle-related fatalities
associated with young drinking drivers--United States, 1983.
MMWR
1984;33:699-701.
Iowa Department of Transportation. 1983 accident facts. Des
Moines, Iowa: Iowa Department of Transportation, January
1985:9.
Office of the County Executive, Montgomery County Government.
Report of the ad hoc task force on drinking and driving.
Rockville, Maryland: Montgomery County Government, May
1982:95.
*The holiday periods were defined according to the National Safety
Council. For 1979, 1982, and 1984, the holiday periods were 102
hours
long; for the remaining years, the holiday periods were 78 hours
long.
**Blood alcohol information is available for fewer than half the
drivers reported in the FARS.
Disclaimer
All MMWR HTML documents published before January 1993 are electronic conversions from ASCII text into HTML. This conversion may have resulted in character translation or format errors in the HTML version. Users should not rely on this HTML document, but are referred to the original MMWR paper copy for the official text, figures, and tables. An original paper copy of this issue can be obtained from the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office (GPO), Washington, DC 20402-9371; telephone: (202) 512-1800. Contact GPO for current prices.
**Questions or messages regarding errors in formatting should be addressed to mmwrq@cdc.gov.
