This paper presents some results of a study of the relationship between alcohol, age and sex among pedestrian casualties. During a continuous 22-month period, 232 pedestrians aged over 14 were admitted to the Royal Adelaide Hospital in South Australia. Blood alcohol concentration (BAC) was measured for 213 of these cases. Table 1 shows the age and sex of the pedestrians admitted. Half were aged over 40, and almost two thirds were male. Table 2 shows the distribution of BAC for males and females. The males drank much more than the females, especially at very high BACs. Graphs show: (1)the hospital admissions per 10,000 population by age for all males and females and for males and females with BAC less than 0.1; (2) the distribution of BAC for car drivers, motorcyclists and pedestrians. It was found that teenagers, old people, and alcohol-affected young and middle-aged males were at increased risk of serious injuries from crash involvement as a pedestrian. The author recommends that young and middle-aged males should be made aware of the risk of walking on or across the road when drunk.
Samenvatting