Involvement of Alcohol in Fatalities of Wisconsin Drivers

EATHS in motor vehicle accidents, ac- counting for more than 50,000 fatalities annually (1), have been recognized as a public health problem.The role of alcohol in these traffic accidents has not been thoroughly investi- gated.Some estimates (1, 2) place the rate of involvement at relatively low levels (25 to 40 percent).Data from our study of Wisconsin driver fatalities show these estimates to be un- realistically low because they are based in part on data concerning all trffic accidents.More comparable data place the significant alcohol involvement at 48 to 57 percent of all drivers killed in single-car accidents (a summary of five studies, reference 3), 62 percent involvement in 37 accidents in New York City (4), 64 percent involvement in 72 accidents in Washtenaw County, Mich. (6), 50 percent involvement in all accidents reported by the National Safety Council (6), and 25 to 75 percent involvement in accidents discussed in a review of 13 sources including four international studies (7).Several studies based on post mortem data indicate that the chronic drinker may be partly responsible for the high fatality rates.Waller (8) showed that 62 percent of drunk drivers had