title: Incidence of xenobiotics among drivers killed in single-vehicle crashes.
abstract: The authors have performed a study of single-vehicle crashes (SVCs) in order to verify a correlation between the loss of vehicle control and the presence of drugs in the body. Overall, 129 cases were recorded and occurred in the catchment area of the Institute of Legal Medicine in Milan between 1986 to 1996. Among the 129 cases under study, respectively 121 men and eight women, 101 were car-drivers and 28 motor-cyclists. The median age was equal to 29 years, while the average age to 32.0 years (range 15-65 years). Fifty eight cases (45.0%) were "positive" for the presence of ethanol > or = 0.8 g/l or other drugs. The sample of "positive cases" was studied according to sex, age, day, hour and type of vehicle. Considering the cases with presence of ethanol, although under the legal limit (20 cases), the total amount of cases (78) becomes even more consistent. The amount of ethanol was found to be respectively 0.34 g/l in daily drivers and 0.87 g/l in nightly drivers (p < 0.01). Our considerations confirm the importance of toxicological analyses in the forensic investigation of traffic deaths being the sample under study recorded following criteria which minimised other possible factors effecting road accidents.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Legal Medicine University of Milan, Italy.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sironi
authors.forename: L O
authors.initials: LO
authors.lastname: Molendini
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Bernabei
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Marozzi
mesh_terms: D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000401:mortality* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002391:Catchment Area, Health; D000431:Ethanol / Q000097:blood*; D005060:Europe; D005260:Female; D008401:Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009049:Motorcycles / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D009294:Narcotics; D015995:Prevalence; D011863:Radioimmunoassay; D012621:Seasons; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000097:blood* / Q000652:urine; D015262:Xenobiotics / Q000097:blood*
chemical_list: D009294:Narcotics; D015262:Xenobiotics; D000431:Ethanol