The report on 'The Hard Core Drinking Driver' was released nearly a year ago. It has generated considerable attention from the media and stimulated significant discussion among the research community as well as those involved with the development and implementation of countermeasure programs and policies. The report showed that drivers with high blood alcohol concentrations (BACs) account for a very significant portion of the drinking driving problem - such drivers account for the vast majority of fatally injured drinking drivers and a substantial portion of all drivers who are killed. They are vastly overrepresented in serious crashes. The report contained both original analyses - primarily using data from the U.S. Fatal Accident Reporting System (FARS) and a review of related literature. The analyses were based on 1988 FARS data; information that is now quite dated. The purpose of this update is to provide more contemporary information and, in so doing, to determine if the magnitude of the problem of high-BAC drivers has changed in recent years. This update replicates the principal analyses on the magnitude of the problem of high-BAC drivers. For reference purposes, in the original study these key findings were contained in Figures 3-1, 3-2 and 3-3. In this update, we have reproduced the original findings for 1988 and provided the parallel findings for 1989, 1990, and 1991 (the most recent year for which data are available). (A)
Abstract