Alcohol Involvement in Fatal Motor-Vehicle Crashes -- United
States, 1993-1994
The following figure Figure_1 compares alcohol involvement
in fatal motor-vehicle crashes for 1993 and 1994. A fatal crash is
considered alcohol-related by the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration (NHTSA) if either a driver or nonoccupant (e.g.,
pedestrian) had a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of greater than
or equal to 0.01 g/dL in a police-reported traffic crash. Because
BACs are not available for all persons in fatal crashes, NHTSA
estimates the number of alcohol-related traffic fatalities based on
a discriminant analysis (1) of information from all cases for which
driver or nonoccupant BAC data are available.
Overall, the number of alcohol-related traffic fatalities
decreased 4.9% from 1993 to 1994. Moreover, for BACs of greater
than or equal to 0.10 g/dL, the legal limit of intoxication in most
states, the number decreased by 6.1%.
Reference
Klein TM. A method of estimating posterior BAC distributions for
persons involved in fatal traffic accidents: final report.
Washington, DC: US Department of Transportation, National
Highway
Traffic Safety Administration, 1986; report no. DOT-HS-807-094.
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