Highway Deaths Spike After Super Bowl - Study

Reuters Health via Yahoo ^ | 1-23-03 | Gene Emery

[Pharmboy]

BOSTON (Reuters) - Attention US motorists: You may want to drive more carefully on the way home from Sunday's Super Bowl party, especially if you live in the state that fields the losing team.

A study of the last 27 Super Bowl Sundays concluded that the highway death rate jumped 70% in the first hour after the big game and remained high over the next few hours.

The increase was particularly dramatic in states with the losing team, where the death rate was 147% higher than on the Sundays before and after the championship.

The only exception was in states with the winning team, where highway death rates did not rise, according to Donald Redelmeier, the chief author of the study.

If the trend holds this Sunday--when the Oakland Raiders square off against the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the NFL championship match--seven extra people will die on US highways and 600 more will be injured in traffic accidents just because it is Super Bowl Sunday.

That's a higher toll than on New Year's Eve, said Redelmeier, of the University of Toronto.

"We were surprised by the magnitude of the increase in mortality, and that it was so widespread through the US, and so consistent throughout the decade. It wasn't a function of whether the game was good, or the point spread, or the score at halftime," he told Reuters.

Alcohol may play a role in the trend, he said, but that doesn't explain why the death rate is lower in the winning states where, presumably, fans also celebrate with a victory drink or two.

"We think part of it is fatigue and distraction," he said. Weary fans, especially of the losing team, keep replaying the loss in the heads, reviewing what went wrong. "The Monday-morning quarterbacking begins Sunday, not Monday night. The result is a surge in fatality rates."

The researchers, in a letter published in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine (news - web sites), said they found a 10% drop in the accident rate during the game itself--presumably because fewer people are on the road--but the post-game accidents more than made up for the reduction.

Redelmeier said fans should avoid unnecessary night driving on Super Bowl Sunday, hospital trauma centers should consider putting extra workers on duty that evening, and states should offer free public transit after the game to keep more people off the streets.

During the Sundays flanking the Super Bowl, there are usually 3,000 crashes, 1,300 injuries and 17 deaths. On Super Bowl Sunday, the number of crashes typically jumps to over 4,000, with 1,900 injuries and 24 deaths.

[Pharmboy]

Maybe, JUST MAYBE, more people are driving on Supe Sunday?

[Revolting cat!]

Oh no, we're all gonna die!

[Semper Paratus]

This study may have a bit more relevance than women beaten on Super Bowl Sunday.

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[camle]

why am I skeptical? I remember other studies that claimed that the super bowl was when wife beating spiked too.

[bigfootbob]

"This study may have a bit more relevance than women beaten on Super Bowl Sunday."

I think not. Just a different "spin" on the Superbowl Week activities to promote an agenda.

[dfwgator]

Just as water consumption spikes at halftime as everyone goes to the bathroom at the same time.

Also a new study concludes that the Super Bowl leads to sucky halftime shows.

[Pharmboy]

Yep--the "Football is EVIL crowd; can't we just play chess and all get along?

[Revolting cat!]

Another study I read proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that Super Bowl leads viewers to a dangerous delusion that the winner of the game achieves "World" Championship, where in fact the sport is played in only one country.

[ErnBatavia]

drive more carefully on the way home from Sunday's Super Bowl party, especially if you live in the state that fields the losing team.

Hey! California's roads are dangerous enough as it is! :) Go Bucs! Win it for the memory of McKay!

[Revolting cat!]

[Inspectorette]

Yep--the "Football is EVIL crowd; can't we just play chess and all get along?

Yeah, and a lot of those football fans are probably driving those EEEEVIL SUV's, too!

[tom paine 2]

Yes, these drunk, testosterone filled, angry white males after pounding their wives to a bloody pulp, hop into their SUVs and go out and commit road rage. It's all in the handbook.

[Pharmboy]

Nothing is super about those things on a hot, humid, August day. Yecchhhh...

[Pharmboy]

But wait--if all the women are left bleeding on the floor at home and not driving--wouldn't the accident rate go DOWN?

(Just joshing here--I know that women have better highway stats than men)

[Revolting cat!]

Seriously though, I'd advise anyone to stay out of Oakland, CA and the towns south of there on Sunday, regardless of the outcome! Visit the Castro Street district in nearby San Francisco instead, if you absolutely have to go out. You'll find a kinder, uhm, gentler crowd there!

[Tall_Texan]

Also a new study concludes that the Super Bowl leads to sucky halftime shows.

The NFL has spread the "Sucky Halftime Show" disease to Thanksgiving and the conference championships. Like I really want to see a bunch of gyrating topless hip hoppers yelling and gesturing to some numbing rythyms.

Not that Up With People or Mary J. Bilge makes one pine for the old days. My all-time Super Bowl halftime highlight was when Stevie Wonder attempted to do a short dance on a stairstepped stage a few years ago. I'm sure every ambulance chaser around the globe got a woody watching that!

[Deguello]

There needs to be a new indictor of Super Bowl influence. A suggestion for if Oakland wins, is to tell all the Mexicans to shoot their guns in the air. Nasty, top of the head wounds would do the trick. Kalerneeia always leads the nation in new trends.

[L.N. Smithee]

Yeah, I believe the study. It's those SUV-driving macho husbands who are beating their wives with one hand and steering with the other. </sarcasm>

[tom paine 2]

All of these claims are anecdotal evidence. The Demonrats would not be in business if it weren't for anecdotal evidence.