[Clam Digger]

The vast majority of accidents on the highway do not have anything to do with alcohol, and of those that do, about half were caused by someone other than the impaired driver. They just happen to involve someone who had been drinking.

[Gabz]

If there is a passenger in the vehicle who had been drinking any crash will be classified as “alcohol involved.”

My dog is going nuts at the moment because of the big doe that is in the road. I’m hoping she finishes crossing before another tractor trailer of chickens comes along.

I feel for anyone that winds up hitting a deer, the first damned thing they are going to be asked is “have you been drinkin.”

[Quix]

I think you’re wholesale wrong again. But I’m checking . . .

Here’s an interesting article with stats on the causes of all deaths in the USA:

http://www.benbest.com/lifeext/causes.html

[Quix]

A 1993 study found: 400,000 deaths from tobacco 300,000 deaths from diet/activity pattern causes and 100,000 deaths from alcohol. Same doc: Causes of ACCIDENTAL DEATHS: (1) MOTOR VEHICLE 43.3% (2) Falls 17.8% (3) Poison,liq/solid 13.0% (4) Drowning 3.9% (5) Fires, Burns,Smoke 3.4% (6) Medical/Surgical Complication 3.1% (7) Other land transport 1.5% (8) Firearms 0.8% (9) Other (nontransport) 17.8% 2002 STATS ABOVE The five leading causes of fatal accidental death have remained the same between 1970 and 1998, and these top 5 account for 80% of all accidental deaths. Approximately forty percent of deaths from acts of nature are due to floods. Approximately forty percent of fire victims die in their sleep. Motor vehicle fatalities are the leading cause of death for people between ages 1-29, and the rate is particularly high between the ages of 15-24. A 16-year-old has 3 times the crash risk of an 18-year-old and 7 times the crash risk of a 25-year-old. As reported by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, in 2005 the States with the highest number of motor vehicle crash deaths per 100,000 people were Wyoming (33.4), Mississippi (31.9), Montana (26.8) and South Carolina (25.7), whereas the States with the lowest were Massachusetts (6.9), New York (7.4), Connecticut (7.8) and Rhode Island (8.1). The fatalities were most likely to occur in single-vehicle crashes for Montana (72%) and the District of Columbia (71%), whereas fatalities were more likely to occur in multiple-vehicle crashes in Delaware (65%) and Michigan (60%). The percentage of pedestrians killed in motor vehicle accidents was highest in the District of Columbia (33%), Hawaii (25%), New York (22%) and New Jersey (21%), whereas it was lowest in Nebraska, Idaho and New Hampshire at 3%. According to CarandDriver.com there are 2.28 fatalities per 100 million vehicle-miles driven in Mississippi as opposed to only 0.87 in Massachusetts. In Wyoming 24% of the traffic is heavy trucks, whereas Hawaii is at the other extreme with only 3% of traffic being heavy trucks. (Crashes involving left-hand turns are much more likely to result in injury -- it is often safer to make three right turns than one left turn.) Driving under the influence of alcohol is the most important cause of death in automobile accidents -- followed by driver fatigue. The percentage of traffic fatalities attributed to alcohol dropped from 57.2% in 1982 to 45% in 1992. The figure is probably much higher, because amounts of alcohol below the legal level of intoxication (all amounts of alcohol) reduce cognitive & physical function. More than a third of pedestrians killed by a motor vehicle fatalities in 1992 were intoxicated. A Gallop poll indicated that nearly a third of respondents remember falling asleep while driving an automobile. People often have "microsleeps" without being aware of them. Automobile accidents due to such incidents are typically unexplained or attributed to other causes. Alcohol and sleepiness interact in a way that is far more dangerous than might be expected. Experiments with twelve healthy men in the 20−26 age range showed that either restriction of sleep to 5 hours or a blood alcohol level roughly equal to the United Kingdom limit for automobile driving nearly tripled the number of lane drifting incidents in the 30−60 minute driving period on a driving simulator. Combining both those levels of alcohol with sleep deprivation again nearly tripled the number of lane drifting incidents above that seen for either the alcohol or sleepiness alone. But the reported sleepiness of those who had the alcohol/sleep-deprivation combination was no greater than what was reported by those who had only been sleep deprived [OCCUPATIONAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL MEDICINE; Horne,JA; 60(9):689-692 (2003)].

[Quix]

For non-motor vehicle accidents in the United States between 1975-1995 33%, ethanol intoxication accounted for 32% of fatal falls, 42% of fatal fires/burns, 34% of fatal drownings and 29% of fatal poisonings. 32% of homicide victims and 23% of suicide victims were intoxicated [ANNALS OF EMERGENCY MEDICINE 33(6):659-701 (1999)]. (The most common cause of poisoning is carbon monoxide.)

Same ref as above.

[Quix]

This page has some excellent stats and illustrations on auto accidents etc.

http://www.automatedtransport.com/htmlv03.html

The deadly toll of auto accidents
6,328,000 auto accidents (USA, 2003) [1]
42,643 fatal auto accident deaths (USA, 2003) [1]
2.9 million injuries (USA, 2003) [1]
230 billion dollars in economic losses (2003) [1]
#1 cause of death for ages 3 to 33 (USA, 2003) [2]
750,000 to 880,000 est. annual deaths worldwide (1999) [3]
23 to 34 million est. annual injuries worldwide (1999

These numbers may be hard to comprehend–but it is worthwhile to consider their true impact. The first illustration at right is a one-square-foot cube made up of 50,00 pennies. Now consider that 42,643 people killed in car accidents in 2003. Look at the cube of pennies and imagine that each penny represents a person who died suddenly in a car wreck. Then consider also the suffering of the family and friends of each one of those 42,643 people.

Reading “2.9 million injuries” may not twist your guts. But it’s a different matter knowing that injuries include disfigurement, amputation, loss of sight, brain damage and paralysis.