title: Incidence and cost of alcohol-involved crashes in the United States.
abstract: The incidence of alcohol-involved highway crashes (those in which a driver or nonoccupant had been drinking) was estimated from federal data bases. The estimates were adjusted for police underreporting of alcohol involvement. In 1990, 22% of motor vehicle crash victims--1.2 million--were injured in crashes involving alcohol. Over 22,000 of these victims were killed. The comprehensive cost of alcohol-involved crashes was $148 billion in 1990, including $46 billion in monetary costs and $102 billion in lost quality of life. This represents $1.09 per drink of alcohol consumed. Crashes where blood alcohol concentration (BAC) exceeded .10% accounted for 32% of comprehensive crash costs, and crashes with lower positive BAC accounted for another 8%. Excluding drunk drivers and drunk nonoccupants, alcohol-involved crashes caused 8,500 deaths and left 21,000 people permanently disabled and another 605,000 less seriously injured. Averaged across all drinks, other people collectively pay $0.63 in crash costs every time someone takes a drink. A combination of increased public awareness and strong legal sanctions has been effective in reducing the incidence of alcohol-involved driving. The proportion of injuries in crashes that police reported were alcohol-involved dropped by 37% between 1982-1984 and 1990.
authors.affiliation: National Public Services Research Institute, Landover, MD 20785.
authors.forename: T R
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.forename: L J
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Blincoe
mesh_terms: D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000191:economics* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000097:blood / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000517:prevention & control; D003365:Costs and Cost Analysis; D000431:Ethanol / Q000097:blood; D017048:Health Care Costs; D006266:Health Education; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D011159:Population Surveillance; D011788:Quality of Life; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000191:economics* / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology / Q000517:prevention & control
chemical_list: D000431:Ethanol