Characteristics of alcohol impaired road users involved in casualty crashes

This paper reports on the findings of a study of alcohol impaired road users involved in casualty crashes. The study linked data from multiple sources to present a more comprehensive profile of the person, crash and licensing characteristics of a group of 1490 road users admitted to hospital as a result of crash involvement between 2008 and 2010. Alcohol impairment was found to be a contributing factor to crash causation in 274 cases, constituting 18.4 per cent of the sample. When only those cases where an alcohol reading was available were examined, it was found that close to 23 per cent of participants were involved in their crash while alcohol impaired. Impairment was found across all road user types but was particularly noted amongst pedestrians (55.8 per cent of pedestrians that were tested) and drivers (24.3 per cent of drivers that were tested). An established diagnosis of alcohol dependence was identified for 146 of the 1490 participants in this study, constituting 9.8 per cent. Indigenous Australians were identified as a vulnerable group found to be at an increased risk of being involved in a crash as the result of alcohol impairment. More than 40 per cent of those participants identified as being alcohol impaired in this study were found to have incurred at least one previous infringement that involved driving with an alcohol level above 0.05gm/100ml and were twice as likely to have had at least one period of licence disqualification when compared with those participants who were not impaired. More than 12 per cent of the alcohol impaired participants had been involved in at least one previous crash whilst intoxicated.

• Record URL:
  http://acrs.org.au/publications/conference-papers/database/
• Authors:
  • Lindsay, V L
• Conference:
  • Australasian Road Safety Research Policing Education Conference, 2012, Wellington, New Zealand
• Publication Date: 2012-10

Language

• English

Media Info

• Pagination: 13p
• Monograph Title: Reducing the cost of road safety: Australasian Road Safety Research, Policing and Education Conference 2012, 4-6 October 2012, Wellington, New Zealand

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Alcohol use; Crash causes; Crashes; Drivers; Drunk driving; Intoxication; Pedestrians; Recidivists; Suspensions
• Uncontrolled Terms: Safe systems (road users)
• Geographic Terms: Australia; South Australia
• ATRI Terms: Alcohol usage; Crash cause; Drink driving; Licence suspension; Pedestrian; Recidivist
• ITRD Terms: 1500: Confiscation (driving licence)
• Subject Areas: Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Safety and Human Factors; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01480248
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: ARRB
• Files: ITRD, ATRI
• Created Date: Apr 30 2013 1:52PM