A COMPARISON OF ALCOHOL INVOLVEMENT IN EXPOSED AND INJURED DRIVERS, PHASES I AND II

The study was conducted for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to investigate the role that alcohol plays in automobile accidents involving injury. Data were collected from drivers involved in such type accidents and also from drivers who were not involved but were similarly exposed to such accidents. Collection of data basically involved: (a) Interviewing and measuring Blood/Breath Alcohol Content (BAC) of accident drivers at the scenes of accidents, in hospitals, or at police stations; (b) interviewing and measuring BAC's of non-accident drivers at the same location of each accident. The most relevant findings of the study were: (a) Drivers involved in injury-producing accidents had significantly higher BAC's than drivers who were exposed to the same environment but who were not involved in accidents; (b) drivers who had a high lvel of BAC were more likely to become involved in injury-producing accidents than drivers who did not have high BAC's; (c) drivers who were driving with a BAC greater than or equal to .030 were found to be at fault more frequently in injury-producing accidents than drivers who were also involved in accidents but who had not been drinking.