Alcohol use among injured sets of drivers and passengers

✍ Scribed by Carl A. Soderstrom; Patricia C. Dischinger; Timothy J. Kerns

• Book ID: 102618882
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1996
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 454 KB
• Volume: 28
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0001-4575
• DOI: 10.1016/0001-4575(95)00046-1

✦ Synopsis

Crash report and blood alcohol concentration (BAC) data were linked for 109 injured driver/passenger pairs admitted to a Level I trauma center. Among those occupants, 47 drivers (43%) (mean BAC, 147 mg/dl) and 45 passengers (41%) (mean BAC, 127 mg/dl) were BAC+. No occupant was BAC+ in 57 crashes (52%); both were BAC+ in 40 (37%); and only one was BAC+ in 12 (11%). When both occupants were BAC+, the driver had the higher BAC in 68% of cases, and when one was BAC+, it was the driver 58% of the time. In 6 additional alcohol-related crashes with one driver and two passengers, the "wrong" occupant was driving on 5 occasions. Hence, in the 58 crashes involving BAC+ occupants, the least appropriate occupant was driving 67% of the time.