Surviving and deceased drivers responsible for 96 fatal accidents during a 38-month period in Washtenaw County, Michigan, and a like number of matched controls were evaluated to determine the prevalence of alcoholism, psychopathology and social stress, as well as other medical and social variables. Information was obtained through interviews of the drivers, their relatives, friends and employers as well as from traffic and arrest records. Thirty-six of the 96 fatality drivers and three control drivers were chronic alcoholics. In addition, 11 fatality drivers and six control drivers were classified as "frequent, high quantity users" of beverage alcohol as herein defined. The 96-driver fatality group differed significantly in many respects from the control group. However, the magnitude of discrepancy was often due to the presence of the 36 alcoholics in the fatality group.
Abstract