Trends In Alcohol Related Fatal Traffic Crashes United States

This is the 21st annual surveillance report from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) on trends in alcohol-related fatal traffic crashes. Data in this series of reports are compiled by the Alcohol Epidemiologic Data System (AEDS) from sources provided by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the Federal Highway Administration (FHA), and the U.S. Census Bureau. Beginning with the current report, AEDS implemented major methodological changes in determining alcohol involvement of fatal traffic crashes. This includes using imputed data on blood alcohol concentration (BAC) for drivers who were not tested for BAC or whose test results are unknown. The imputed BAC data are provided by NHTSA for 1982 and later years. In order to present consistent trend data, AEDS recalculated all historical numbers with the imputed BAC data and excluded data before 1982 from this report. As a result, the proportion of alcohol-related traffic crash fatalities as well as the proportion of drivers alcohol involvement in these crashes increased substantially from data presented in the previous issues of this report.

Every day thousands of people are killed and injured on our roads. Millions of people each year will spend long weeks in the hospital after severe crashes and many will never be able to live, work or play as they used to do. Current efforts to address road safety are minimal in comparison to this growing human suffering. This report presents a comprehensive overview of what is known about the magnitude, risk factors and impact of road traffic injuries, and about ways to prevent and lessen the impact of road crashes. Over 100 experts, from all continents and different sectors -- including transport, engineering, health, police, education and civil society -- have worked to produce the report. Charts and tables.