The objective of this project was to investigate the incidence of alcohol consumption in fatal traffic deaths in Shanghai, one of the largest cities in China. A study was conducted on 803 individuals killed in road accidents during the period 2009—2011, in terms of alcohol-positive rate, mean blood alcohol content (BAC), gender, age, vehicle type, pedestrian alcohol problem, single-vehicle versus multiple-vehicle crashes, and time of day. It was found that 28.9% of the drivers involved had a BAC 0.20 mg/mL (limit of civil offense) and 21.8% had a BAC 0.80 mg/mL (limit of criminal offense). The mean BAC of alcohol-positive drivers (with a BAC 0.20 mg/mL) was 1.51 mg/mL. The vast majority of the drivers involved were males. With regards to age, the largest group was of drivers aged between 40 and 49 years group in both alcohol-negative cases (26.8%) and alcohol-positive cases (26.2%). Motorcycles were most likely to be involved, representing 34.4% of alcohol-negative crashes and 51.6% of alcohol-positive crashes. Very high BACs were common among alcohol-positive pedestrians, yet all female pedestrians were alcohol-negative. Single-vehicle crashes were over-represented in alcohol-positive cases. Alcohol-negative crashes and alcohol-positive crashes most often happened during the time period of 17:00—18:59 and 19:00—20:59, respectively. (Author/publisher)
Abstract