Alcohol a factor in half 1977 fatal crashes

Press, 6 December 1979, Page 22

Alcohol a factor in half 1977 fatal crashes

The large part that alcohol plays in fatal road accidents in New Zealand has been proved by a study of all fatal road acI cidents in 1977 by Dr John Bailey of the Chemistry Division, Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. Dr Bailey’s study show- , ed that at least' 53 per I cent of accidents which j ended in death involved i alcohol. From his study of 1 the 625 deaths, Dr Bailey

was able to characterise the drinking driver. “Firstly, drinking and driving is a ‘man’ problem — no more cracks about women drivers,” he said. "Only 11 per cent of the fatal’ accidents in which the driver had been drinking were caused by women.

“The second feature of drinking drivers is that they are predominantly young. The under-25 agegroup was grossly overrepresented, with a maximum involvement in fatal accidents at age 18 to 20.” Dr Bailey says that 18-year-old drivers were involved in fatal accidents in 1977 eight times as often as 45-year-old drivers and where alcohol was involved the figure rose to a staggering 15 times. He found that alcohol and speed were a

lethal combination for the voung driver in particular. ’ Drinking drivers were most likely to be unskilled workers. Dr Bailey added. Motar-cvclists also came under close scrutiny from Dr Bailey. He found that fatal motor-cycle accidents had a lower alcohol involvement than car crashes. but added that a motor-cyclist is four times as likely to be killed as a car driver. Another interesting fact that emerged from the research was that 71 per cent of riders of large motor-cycles at fault in fatal accidents were speeding. Drunken pedestrians also figured in the statistics. About one-sixth Of the people who died on the road in 1977 were pedestrians, and half of these were drunk.

Finally. Dr Bailey notes* that the innocent viotim is? not a common feature of* drinking and driving. f ”If we omit passengers; killed by travelling withe drunken drivers — theyj should have known better? — 9 per cent of the< people killed in 1977 were£ innocent victims," he said. / “Drunken drivers kilK themselves or their pas-jf sengers in the one-car ac-» cident, or quite often ana other drunken driver." 1 The lessons to ber learned from these find< ings are evident — ifj. you're young, have been* drinking and decide tc£ drive home, the odds artfl stacked against your getting home safely. And if you ride a large motor--cvcle and regularly break I speed limits, you could ) also soon become a sttns- j tic.