The results of blood alcohol tests obtained from Coroners in England and Wales and Procurators Fiscal in Scotland between 1995 and 1999 have been analysed to examine the problem of drinking pedestrians who die in road accidents. Records linking blood alcohol concentrations to accident details obtained from the national road accident database (Stats19) were available for 1748 adult pedestrian fatalities (those aged 16 and over who died within 12 hours of a road accident) during this five-year period. The analysis explores a number of parameters of accident circumstance together with the age and sex of the fatally injured adult pedestrians and associations with different blood alcohol concentration levels. The results have been compared with the results of an earlier study in 1985-89. There has been an increase in the proportion of adult pedestrians fatalities found to be drinking prior to an accident in the decade. The number of pedestrians killed per year has reduced by about one half but the proportion who had consumed alcohol has increased from 40% to 48%. (Author/publisher) For the covering abstract of the conference see ITRD Abstract No. E201067.
Samenvatting