Alcohol related is not alcohol caused
Pub Date: 1/1/2003
Letter: Statistics distort issue
Dear Editor:
I saw a newspaper story the other day titled Switching gears: New tactics, partnerships may help reduce drunk driving fatalities.
It called for a new mind-set in the war on drunk driving, but it should start by challenging the bad statistics that are used to exaggerate and misrepresent the problem.
First, let us understand that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration defines "alcohol related accident" as any accident involving anyone with a blood alcohol content of .01 or greater.
That level of BAC is the equivalent of a half a beer'; it is one-eighth the amount of blood alcohol required for a drunk driving conviction. So, an "alcohol related accident" may not involve anyone driver, passenger or pedestrian who is drunk. Further, any and all drivers involved in an "alcohol related accident" may have absolutely no alcohol in their bloodstreams.
The article s statement that about 17,000 people die per year from drunken driving promulgates the pervasive image of 17,000 innocent victims being killed by drunk drivers.
In reality, this number includes situations such as a pedestrian with .01 BAC walking in front of sober drivers'; and drivers or passengers with negligible blood alcohol levels being killed by sober drivers hardly "drunk driving."
Inaccurate sound bites like that blur the crucial difference between alcohol-related and alcohol-caused fatalities a distinction lost on most people and one that results in policies targeting responsible adults instead of drunk drivers.
Of course, this statistic could be countered with different ones.
According to government data, if you remove from statistics drinking (not necessarily drunk) pedestrians and drinking (not necessarily drunk) drivers who kill themselves, there were 4,548 real victims in "alcohol related accidents," or 27 percent of the originally stated 17,000 figure.
When put in terms of distance, that s one person for every 625 million vehicle miles traveled.
Each death is still a tragedy, but these more relevant numbers dictate a different approach to the problem.
By repeating the deceptive 17,000 deaths factoid, the article perhaps unintentionally serves as a mouthpiece for groups whose very livelihood depends upon inflating and distorting the drunk-driving problem.
Given that the way the problem is framed dictates the solutions pursued to address it, getting the facts straight is the first step toward creating effective policies.
Dennis Cooper
Owner, Geno s 140 Club
Bethalto, Ill.
Source: ABL Leader, November, 2005, published monthly by Continental Communications, 125 W. Granite St., Suite 102, Butte, MT 59701.