A recent attempt to better characterize the alcohol-use profile of fatally injured drivers with very high blood alcohol contents revealed some expected and unexpected results. First, drivers with BAC of 0.15% percent or higher from a sample of people killed in 1993 were far more likely than other drivers to have been problem drinkers. And the higher the BAC, the more likely the driver was to have had a history of problems. However, there was a large share of fatally injured high-BAC drivers who did not appear to have a history of problems. In addition, the known repeat offenders were a small minority, even among the over-0.15% group, where fewer than 20% had convictions. The findings suggest that tougher sanctions aimed at problem drinkers will only address a small part of the problem, and that more sweeping enforcement such as sobriety checkpoints will be more effective in preventing more people from driving while impaired. (Author/publisher)
Abstract