A Comparison of Alcohol Involvement in Exposed and Injured Drivers, Phases I and II

Author's abstract: The primary objective of the study was to compare alcohol related data collected from drivers involved in injury producing automobile accidents with the same type of data collected from drivers who were similarly exposed to these mishaps but who did not have 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 (depending on circumstances); (b) interviewing and measuring BACs of non-accident drivers at the same location of each accident and at same time of day, day of week, and direction of travel. The most relevant findings of the study were: (a) drivers involved in injury-producing accidents had significantly higher BACs than drivers who were exposed to the same environment but who were not involved in accidents; (b) drivers who had a high level of BAC were more likely to become involved in an injury-producing accident than drivers who did not have high BAC's; (c) drivers who were driving with a BAC > .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.