A.C.C. survey highlights alcohol-accident link

Press, 3 May 1984, Page 30

A.C.C. survey highlights alcohol-accident link

A survey by the Accident Compensation Corporation at the end of last year has found that 27 per cent of drivers claiming compensation for accident injury had consumed alcohol in the 12 hours before the accident. This statistic has been released at a meeting of the Canterbury Community Council on Alcohol, Inc., in Christchurch by the chairman of the Accident Compensation Corporation’s board of directors, Mrs V. Duncan.

Mrs Duncan said that the statistics were taken over a three-month period and had not yet been fully collated. The corporation did not include any question on alcohol consumption on its normal claim . forms because the information which

would be obtained was not relevant in the “no fault” philosophy of the corporation. It was also doubtful whether such information would be of much use because a driver who had consumed alcohol then suffered an injury in an accident was unlikely to want to include such information. Even if the driver did, it would not prove that alcohol was a factor in the accident, said Mrs Duncan. Mrs Duncan addressed the council on whether the corporation should continue to fund alcohol-related accidents. “We can, we do, and we must, because we have a no-fault accident compensation scheme. Whether we should is an entirely dif-

ferent matter.” The cost of alcohol impairment was too often swept under the carpet. It was difficult to overcome entrenched attitudes and interests. Many people liked alcohol and anyone focusing attention on the subject ran the risk of being labelled “priggish.” New Zealand was a beerdrinking nation and no political party was prepared to take on alcohol impairment as an issue to fight, so those who were concerned about the effects'Of alcohol had to change the attitudes of the community. New Zealand as a whole had to decide if it wanted to continue paying the “enormous” cost of alcohol impairment of its citizens, said Mrs Duncan.