The scope and intensity of activity directed at the problem of drinking and driving was unprecedented in Canada during the 1980s. Public and political concern engendered a wide range of initiatives and, consistent with this activity, corresponding declines in the magnitude of the problem itself occurred. Between 1981 and 1989, the percent of fatally injured drivers with blood alcohol concentrations (BACs) in excess of the legal limit dropped by 31%. The decline observed in the 1980s was interrupted rather abruptly and significantly beginning in the 1990s when the percent of fatally injured drivers who were drinking increased. Since 1993, however, there has been a further decline in the incidence of fatally injured impaired drivers that has continued through 1997. The level achieved in 1997 (31% of fatally injured drivers with BACs over the legal limit) was the lowest point reached in the past three decades. Recent changes in the magnitude of the alcohol-fatal crash problem, however, have not been uniform across different groups of fatally injured drivers. This paper examines these trends in the alcohol-fatal crash problem in Canada.
Abstract