This study considered three aspects of the traffic accident problem' alcohol, drugs, and organic factors. Each aspect was examined to define the extent of the problem and to provide descriptive characteristics. The study data represented drivers dying, within 15 minutes, in single car accidents in the state of California during a two year period. The study data is, therefore, not a random sample of all traffic accidents. Results indicated that among study drivers, alcohol is a greater problem with men than women. Other findings relating to alcohol were as follows' the alcohol problem is most pronounced in the 30 to 50 age group, is significant on all seven days of the week /it being somewhat higher on weekends/ and highly prevalent between midnight and 3'00 a.m. when 26% of the accidents occurred in which 83% of the drivers had a blood alcohol level in excess of 0.1. Drinking drivers had a higher accident, traffic violation and police contacts record than non-drinking drivers but the differences were not of sufficient magnitude to warrant a program of driver control. Major findings from the analysis of drug data were as follows' thirteen percent of the study sample drivers were found to have taken drugs /as determined from a blood sample/; drug usage increases proportionately with age, and the alcohol problem is also present among drug users. The third factor studied was organic factors. Of all study sample drivers studied, 10.5% were found to have died from natural causes /over 90% from heart related causes/ rather than from the traffic accident. These victims tended to be men and from the older population. Also, these drivers tended to be more of a daytime problem whereas drivers dying from the traffic accident tended to be a nighttime problem /primarily due to alcohol/. A very low occurrence of alcohol was found among drivers dying from natural causes, while the drug usage was higher.
Abstract