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This paper is part of a larger study of how knowledge is used in strategies for the solution of public issues. I examine research papers on the issue of drinking and driving, treating the scientific document as a literary, artistic product. Principles of literary criticism, utilized in the analysis of narrative, drama and poetry are applied to the presentation of research to show how statements of fact are given scientific legitimacy and how the literary formulation transfers such statements into rhetorical prescriptions for action. Theorizing and conclusion-making are shown to involve presentational devices of literary selection and language which confer policy implications upon them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the article, the author comments on the article "The Literary Rhetoric of Science: Comedy and Pathos in Drinking Driver Research," by Joseph Gusfield, published in the February 1976 issue of the journal "American Sociological Review." According to the author, Gusfield wants to challenge the accepted view that scientific language is a neutral transmitter of knowledge. As a result of his analysis of one paper central to policy formation with respect to drinking drivers, he suggests that there is a fundamental "tenuousness or ambiguity of conclusions" in some scientific writing. The conclusion of a logical argument, if one accepts its premises, is self-evidently true irrespective of any audience's response to it. The conclusion of a rhetorical argument, on the other hand, cannot be treated as knowledge as it stands: its cognitive status has to be assessed in relation to the response of the intended audience. To maintain that scientific discourse is rhetorical, or more warily to treat it as if rhetorical is to formulate scientific knowledge as the changing judgments of scientific audiences on the meaning of statements directed to them, where these judgments are understood to emerge through a process of persuasive argumentation. Although immanent in Gusfield's essay, this formulation is never presented in the explicit terms that clarity demands.

In the article, the author presents a response to Michael A. Overington's article commenting on his article "The Literary Rhetoric of Science: Comedy and Pathos in Drinking Driver Research," published in the February 1976 issue of the journal "American Sociological Review." According to the author, Overington's comments raise a number of questions. The author believes that the most difficult is the problem of the meaning of knowledge in his article. This has been divided in two different problems. One of them explores how scientific findings take on significance of meaning, while the other focuses on the validity of those findings themselves. The author believes that his paper as oriented chiefly to the first of these questions because it is here that science moves toward action. This involves understanding bow it is that data become translated or transferred into conclusions and generalizations. His intention was to raise the possibility that the use of literary techniques of analysis might help in understanding how it is that data are developed and conclusions are derived. .

Youth suicide has become a public health tragedy in the United States, having tripled from 1950 to 1990 for the 15-24 year old age group. Alcohol use has been consistently found to have a strong positive correlation with suicide. Recent medical studies suggest that, for example, 23 percent of adult suicides involved intoxicated victims. Another study of Oregon youth indicated that the vast majority of suicide attempts involve poison including alcohol and drug overdoses, and 35 percent of victims had a positive blood alcohol level at time of death. This paper uses the widespread variation across states in the timing of adoption of tougher drunk driving laws that set very low legal blood alcohol limits for drivers under age 21 "zero tolerance" laws to provide new evidence on the causal effect of alcohol use on youth suicide. A handful of studies have estimated the reduced form relationship between suicide completions and various alcohol control policies. The intuition is straightforward, more restrictive alcohol control policies are presumed to reduce alcohol consumption, which in turn reduces suicide completion to the extent that alcohol use causes suicide.

In this research, 3356 alcohol-related traffic crashes were obtained from blood-alcohol test reports in Tianjin, China. Population density, intersection density, road density, and alcohol outlet densities, including retail density, entertainment density, restaurant density, company density, hotel density, and residential density, were extracted from 2114 traffic analysis zones (TAZs). After a spatial autocorrelation test, the multiple linear regression model (MLR), geographically weighted Poisson regression model (GWPR), and semi-parametric geographically weighted Poisson regression model (SGWPR) were utilized to explore the spatial effects of the aforementioned variables on drunk-driving crash density. The result shows that the SGWPR model based on the adaptive Gaussian function had the smallest AICc value and the best-fitting accuracy. The residential density and the intersection density are global variables, and the others are local variables that have different influences in different regions. Furthermore, we found that the influence of local variables in the economic–technological development area shows significantly different characteristics compared with other districts. Thus, a comprehensive consideration of spatial heterogeneity would be able to improve the effectiveness of the programs formulated to decrease drunk driving crashes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the effect of state-level Sunday alcohol sales restrictions ('blue laws') on fatal vehicle accidents, which is an important parameter in assessing the desirability of these laws. Using a panel data set of all fatal vehicle accidents in the U.S. between 1990 and 2009 combined with 15 state repeals of blue laws, we show that restricting alcohol sales on Sunday has at most a small effect on fatal accident rates. Using American Time Use Survey data, we find no effect of blue laws on the location of consumption, and we show that the group whose drunk driving behavior is most affected by these laws is underage men. Overall, these results suggest that Sunday alcohol sales restrictions have fewer secular public health benefits, at least in terms of vehicle fatalities, than previously believed. © 2011 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Drinking and driving has been identified as one of the most important contributors of motor vehicle fatalities. This paper addressed the existing gap in our public health knowledge regarding the current prevalence of driving after drinking and how this has changed over the past decade. Methods: Prevalence rates of drinking and driving in 2001–2002, and changes in those prevalence rates between 1991–1992 and 2001–2002, were examined in two large nationally representative surveys of the U.S. population. Results: Overall, the prevalence of driving after drinking was 2.9 percent in 2001–2002, representing approximately six million U.S. adults. This rate was about three-quarters of the rate observed in 1991–1992 (3.7 percent), reflecting a 22-percent reduction. Generally, the male-female differentials in the rate of driving after drinking decreased over the past decade. However, the sex ratios increased substantially for underaged youth over the past decade, reflecting the sharp decrease in prevalence of driving after drinking among 18- to 20-year-old women. Constant and emerging subgroups at high risk for drinking and driving included Whites, Native Americans, males, underaged young adults, and 21- to 25year-olds. Conclusions: The results of this study highlighted the need to continue to monitor prevalence and changes in driving after drinking. Results are discussed in the context of strengthening existing prevention and intervention efforts and developing new programs with the sociodemographic differentials observed in this study in mind. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the main means to cope with the stubborn problem of drunk driving, the inspection of drunk driving has already been paid more attention and thus reinforced. In this paper, we model this scenario as a Stackelberg game, where the police department (called defender) allocates resources dynamically in terms of the traffic situation on the traffic network to arrest drink drivers and drivers who drink (called attacker), whether choosing drunk driving or designated driving service, expect to minimize their cost for given travel routes. However, with the number of resources are limited, our goal is to calculate the optimal resource allocation strategy for the defender. Therefore, first, we provide an effective approach (named OISDD) to fulfill our goal, i.e., generate the optimal strategy to inspect drunk driving. Second, we apply OISDD to directed graphs (which are abstracted from Dalian traffic network) to analyze and test its correctness and rationality. The experimental results show that OISDD is feasible and efficient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focuses on the increase in risk and perceived risk associated with driving after drinking among young drivers. Public efforts to reduce drunk-driving fatalities; Factors which contribute to increase in the relative risks of driving; Role played by information in reducing the highway death rates.

Currently, Japan's Road Traffic Act uses the breath alcohol concentration (BrAC), which is the concentration of alcohol in 1 L of breath, to enforce the law. However, 400 drunk driving accidents occurred in 2020 when the BrAC was below 0.15 mg/L, which is legal limit in Japan, and cognitive function may be impaired at this concentration. Therefore, we investigated the effects of alcohol consumption at levels below a BrAC of 0.15 mg/L on cognitive function and its change over time using P300, a type of event-related potential, and the concomitant negative variation (CNV). Beer with a 5% alcohol content was used as the drinking load, and the amount of alcohol consumed was determined using a derivation formula that varied according to the subject's body weight. Electroencephalogram (EEG) measurements were obtained five times before drinking and 10, 30, 50, and 70 min after, and participants were given a go/no-go task to induce event-related potentials during the measurements. The BrAC was measured immediately before the EEG measurement was performed. The results revealed that the alcohol concentration in the exhaled breath increased significantly (p<0.05) at 10, 30, and 50 min after drinking compared with immediately before. In addition, the P300 latency was significantly prolonged (p<0.05), and the early and late CNV amplitudes were significantly increased (p<0.05) in the event-related potentials during these time periods. Moreover, no significant difference was observed in expiratory alcohol concentration at 70 min post-drinking, but significant changes in event-related potentials still occurred. Therefore, our results suggest that cognitive function is impaired in patients with low levels of alcohol consumption, when the BrAC is below the legal limit, and even when the BrAC recovers after the end of alcohol consumption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fatal motor vehicle crashes (MVCs) continue to be a common occurrence worldwide. This paper presents a retrospective analysis of the toxicological investigation of drivers and motorcyclists fatally injured in MVCs in Scotland from 2012 to 2015. One hundred and eighteen cases with full toxicological analysis, i.e., alcohol, drugs of abuse and prescription drugs, were examined. Of those 118 MVC cases, 74 (63%) were car drivers, 32 (27%) were motorcyclists and the remaining were drivers of other vehicles such as large goods vehicles. The majority of deceased drivers and motorcyclists were male (N=104, 88%). For the toxicological findings, 51 (43%) of the cases were negative, and of the 67 (57%) positive cases, alcohol and cannabinoids were the most frequently detected substances, followed by opioids and benzodiazepines. Fifteen percent of all drivers and motorcyclists were over the prescribed blood alcohol limit at the time of analysis. In comparison to previous reports of drug use by drivers in Scotland, benzodiazepines and new psychoactive substances were less common findings in fatally injured drivers and motorcyclists than in drivers suspected of being impaired. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In March 2020, Ohio, along with many other states, enacted a stay-at-home order (i.e., "shutdown") to limit the spread of COVID-19. As a result of lower traffic, crashes should also have declined. We investigated whether crash rates declined in Ohio during the stay-at-home order and explore possible predictors for the decrease, such as reduced travel in compliance with the order, along with speeding, alcohol, and drug use. In addition, we examined whether support for President Trump would relate to greater travel and greater crashes (particularly during the stay-at-home order, when greater travel indicated lower compliance). The overall rate of crashes fell as people stayed home, mainly due to a decline in minor crashes. In contrast, the rate of serious crashes did not fall. Instead, percentage of alcohol-related crashes increased during the stay-at-home order, and the reduction in travel was associated with greater speeding-related crashes. Because alcohol and speeding tend to increase crash severity, these two factors may explain why severe crash rates were not reduced by lower traffic. Instead, it appears that those drivers remaining on the roads during the shutdown may have been more prone to risky behaviors, evidenced by a greater percentage of alcohol-related crashes across the state during the shutdown and greater speed-related crashes in counties with less traffic. In addition, county-level support for President Trump indirectly predicted greater rates of crashes (of all types) via increased travel (i.e., lower compliance with the shutdown), even while controlling for county-level income, rurality, and Appalachian region. Importantly, this mediated effect was stronger during the weeks of the shutdown, when greater travel indicated lower compliance. Thus, lower compliance with the stay-at-home order and increased risky driving behaviors by remaining drivers may explain why lower traffic did not lead to lower serious crashes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Alcohol use has been linked to impairment of cognitive and psychomotor driving skills, yet the extent to which skill impairment contributes to actual crashes is unknown. A reasonable assumption is that some driving situations have higher skill demands than others. We contend that intersections, the presence of other vehicles or moving objects, and work zones are examples of common situations with higher skill demands. Accordingly, if skill deficits are largely responsible for alcohol-involved crashes, crashes involving a drinking driver (versus only sober drivers) should be overrepresented in these driving situations. Method: Publicly available FARS data from 2010 to 2017 were collected. Fatal crashes were coded as alcohol-involved (1+ driver with a blood alcohol concentration [BAC] ≥.05 g/dl) or having no impaired driver (BACs =.000). Drug-positive crashes were excluded. Crashes were also coded as involving moving versus stationary objects, occurring at versus away from intersections, being multivehicle versus single vehicle, occurring at or away from work zones. Results: Across multiple models, controlling for time of day and type of road, alcohol-involved crashes were significantly underrepresented in crashes at intersections, with moving objects, and other vehicles. Most strikingly, alcohol-involved crashes were 24 percentage points more likely to be with a stationary object than a moving object. Conclusions: No evidence supported the idea that skill reductions are a primary contributor to alcohol-involved crashes. Alternative explanations and limitations are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: The main aim of this paper is to analyse the development in alcohol-related mortality and other indicators of alcohol-related harm for the period 1990–2005 but with focus on the recent period of rising population drinking. Data: The harm indicators included are various forms of alcohol-related mortality (accidents, cirrhosis, suicide, homicide and an index of alcohol-specific mortality) and hospitalisations (index of alcohol-specific diagnoses, liver cirrhosis and alcohol poisonings) as well as alcohol-related crime indicators (police-reported assaults, drink-driving offences and police arrests for drunkenness). Data on alcohol consumption were obtained from the Swedish Monitoring survey. Results: The findings confirm previous studies suggesting that recently alcohol-related mortality in general has not increased as expected with the rise in alcohol consumption. Still, a closer look revealed several indications of higher alcohol mortality today compared with the period before consumption started to increase, e.g., for liver cirrhosis, fatal accidents and alcohol-specific mortality in Southern Sweden. Further, alcohol-related hospitalisations in somatic care and hospitalisations for liver cirrhosis and alcohol poisonings have increased among both men and women and a recent upward trend was found regarding reported drink-driving offences, alcohol-related traffic accidents and violent crimes. Conclusion: Taking all indicators together suggests that alcohol-related harm in Sweden today has become higher compared with the situation before population drinking started to rise in the late 1990s, though not at the expected extent for all harms. A lower level of drinking in Sweden would most likely give rise to less alcohol-related problems among men and women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Underage drinking and its associated consequences, including driving after drinking and riding with a drinking driver, remain a major public health concern to this nation. Underage drinking is also a major contributor to motor-vehicle injuries and fatalities among persons age 15 to 20. School-based alcohol prevention programs are essential in helping to prevent drinking and driving among adolescents. This paper will present methods and results of a preliminary evaluation conducted on a school-based drinking and driving prevention program for high school students that simulates alcohol-related consequences and involves various community elements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An extensive review of the literature on college students' drinking patterns and problems since the mid-1930s revealed no radical changes over the past several decades. However, during the past 10 years, drinking and problems related to drinking and driving have gradually decreased among college students. Results of a study of students at the same 56 colleges and universities throughout the United States (3,145 in 1982-83, 2,797 in 1984-85, and 3,375 in 1987-88) revealed few changes in collegiate drinking patterns and problems attributable to the nationwide increase in the minimum age for alcohol purchase. There was a decline in the proportion of students who drank in the period during which the law changed. However, the proportion of students categorized as heavy drinkers remained constant over time and the proportion of underage students (81 percent) who drank was higher than the proportion of legal age students who drank (75 percent). Of 17 problems related to drinking, all but 5 remained stable over the time periods. Three of the problems represent the continuum of an established trend of fewer students to indicating drinking and driving-related problems. As discussed in this paper, creative alcohol programming can assist in controlling alcohol abuse among college students. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traffic fatalities are the leading cause of accidental deaths and the leading cause of all deaths for people between the ages of 16 and 25 [4]. A major cause of traffic accidents is drunken driving. Reed [12] estimates that the annual number of deaths could be reduced by 12,000 if all drunken driving were eliminated. Recently increased attention has been directed toward finding ways to reduce the incidence of drunken driving. This paper evaluates the relative effectiveness of several policies in terms of reduced fatalities. These policies include raising the minimum legal drinking age, increasing legal sanctions and enforcement, and increasing the price and reducing the availability of alcoholic beverages. Most studies have focused on a single policy. Studies by Cook [3], McCornac [7], and Williams, et. al. [16] examined the effect of raising the minimum legal drinking age. Their results indicate that auto fatalities have fallen in states where the minimum legal drinking age has been increased. Ross [13] and Votey [15] both examined the drunken driving deterrence policies in Scandanavian countries. Ross was unable to show that they had any effect on behavior. Using a more sophisticated model, Votey concluded that the severe deterrence policies reduced the incidence of drunken driving. Cook and Tauchen [2] found that increasing taxes on alcoholic beverages reduced consumption and led to fewer auto fatalities and a lower incidence of cirrhosis death. This study differs from those above in that it incorporates all of these aspects of the drunken driving debate. This allows policy makers to compare the relative effectiveness of these policies, and enables them to allocate financial and political resources more effectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

SUMMARY The problem of estimating the number of binary responses that can be attributed to high levels of a continuous covariate is studied. The distribution of the covariate in the population is combined with the relative odds of response to produce a function, areas under which represent numbers of responses attributable to covariate values in that range. A combination of parametric and nonparametric smoothing is proposed. Consistent estimates of variance are developed as well as confidence bands for the attributable response function based on the bootstrap. The methods are illustrated on data relating fatal motor accident involvement to alcohol impairment of the driver. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Binge drinking behavior has been described as the most significant health hazard on college campuses today. Using definitions of ritual behavior drawn from the literature, the authors conducted focus groups, depth interviews, and participant observations to explore the ritualized nature of alcohol beverage consumption among college students at two large universities. The themes that emerged provide an understanding of the rituals associated with college student drinking. With the drinking-as-ritual interpretation as a theoretical framework, the authors discuss how developers of public service announcements (PSAs) could capture and contextualize drinking rituals and thus make PSAs more relevant to the target audience. They provide examples of PSAs that could be tested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AIMS - As part of the WHO Harm from others' drinking project, Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, Chile, Nigeria and Vietnam undertook scoping studies to examine: which service agencies in low and middle income countries responded to people affected by others' drinking; how commonly key informants from these agencies indicated alcohol was part of the problems they managed; and whether any routine reporting systems collected information on alcohol's harm to others (AHTO) and the types and examples of harms experienced across the six countries. METHODS - Researchers synthetised within country peer-review literature, reports, news and agency website information. Additionally, researchers interviewed key informants to investigate current structures, functions and practices of service agencies, and in particular their recording practices surrounding cases involving others' drinking. RESULTS - 111 key informants agreed to participate from 91 purposively selected agencies from health, social protection, justice and police, and 'other' sectors. National and provincial level data, as well as state-run and civil society agency data were collected. Diverse service response systems managed AHTO in the different countries. A large range in the percentage of all cases attributed to AHTO was identified. Case story examples from each country illustrate the different responses to, and the nature of, many severe problems experienced because of others' drinking. CONCLUSIONS - AHTO was a major issue for service systems in LMIC, and significantly contributed to their workload, yet, very few recording systems routinely collected AHTO data. Recommendations are outlined to improve AHTO data collection across multiple sectors and enable LMIC to better identify and respond to AHTO. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Applied to police officers, displaced aggression theory would suggest that an officer primed for a negative affect by a personal family conflict will be more likely to arrest, and less likely to show lenience toward, criminal suspects engaged in minor offenses. The present study primed a sample of police officers for either positive or negative affects. The police officer participants were then presented with a vignette involving a drunken driver that contained details presenting only the minimum level of evidence to justify a legal arrest. The respondent officers primed for a negative affect were significantly more likely to indicate they would arrest the driver. This result held even after controlling for the officers’ ascribed characteristics in a multivariate analysis. The results suggest that officers primed for a negative affect by personal circumstances are more likely to take out their frustration by exercising their discretion to arrest for a minor offense. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using cross-state variation in minimum wages, we observe a positive relationship between the minimum wage and the number of alcohol-related accidents involving teen drivers. A similar effect is not observed when examining accidents among adults. The results are consistent with a positive income elasticity for alcoholic beverages and driving activities among young people, in particular for consumption out of discretionary income accorded by higher minimum wages. Evidence of a sizable impact of beer taxes on alcohol-related accidents among youths suggests that beer taxes are one avenue for policymakers to consider in counteracting this unintended consequence of minimum wages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Adicciones is the property of Sociedad Cientifica Espanola de Estudios sobre el Alcohol and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Both anecdotal and empirical lines of evidence have pointed out that frequent binge drinking has far more serious consequences than occasional bingeing. As a result, a lower penalty for heavy drinking will be estimated by combining the heavy bingers with individuals who binge on rare occasions and are not necessarily less productive. This article explores the drinking-earnings relationship based on a finer distinction between frequent and occasional bingeing, and an extension to female subjects. It finds that frequent bingers experience reduced earnings whereas non-bingers and occasional bingers earn a positive premium over abstainers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: The aim of the study was to assess whether alcohol-related mortality data in the UK should be extended to include contributory as well as underlying cause of death. Methods: A total of 101,320 deaths registered in Northern Ireland between 2001 and 2007 were analysed to determine the quantity and characteristics of those with an underlying or contributory alcohol-related cause of death. Results: Alcohol was found to be an underlying cause of death in 1690 cases (1.7% of deaths) and a contributory cause in a further 1105 cases. Analyses show that the addition of alcohol-related contributory causes of deaths would increase the male–female ratio, result in steeper socio-economic gradients and amplify the apparent rate of increase of alcohol-related deaths. The significant contribution of alcohol to external causes of death, such as accidents and suicide, is also more evident. Conclusions: Using only underlying cause of death undoubtedly underestimates the burden of alcohol-related harm and may provide an inaccurate picture of those most likely to suffer from an alcohol-related death, especially among younger men. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

We use a difference-in-differences design to estimate the causal impact of the adoption of dry laws in the São Paulo Metropolitan Area (SPMA) on violent behaviour. Dry laws cause a 10% reduction in homicides. Similar impacts were found on battery and deaths by car accidents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: The aims of this study were (1) to examine the association between neighborhood alcohol outlet density and individual self-reported alcohol-related health outcomes in the last year—sexually transmitted infections (STI), motor vehicle accidents, injury, liver problems, hypertension and experienced violence; (2) to determine whether the relationship between morbidity and alcohol outlet density is mediated by individual alcohol consumption; and (3) to explore the role of alcohol outlet density in explaining any observed racial and ethnic differences in morbidity. Method: Hierarchical models from a random sample of Los Angeles, CA, and Louisiana residents (N = 2881) from 217 census tracts were utilized. The clustering of health and social outcomes according to neighborhood varied by health problem examined. Results: There was substantial clustering of STI (intraclass correlation coefficient, ICC = 12.8%) and experienced violence (ICC = 13.0%); moderate clustering of liver problems (ICC = 3.5%) and hypertension (ICC = 3.9%); and low clustering of motor vehicle accident (ICC = 1.2%) and injury (ICC = 1.4%). Alcohol outlet density was significantly and positively associated with STI (crude OR = 1.80, 95% CI = 1.10–3.00), liver problems (crude OR = 1.33, 95% CI = 1.02–1.75) and experienced violence (crude OR = 1.31, 95% CI = 1.13–1.51) although not with other morbidity outcomes. Mediation analyses of morbidity outcomes revealed partial mediation of individual alcohol consumption in the relationship between alcohol density and STI and violence, and full mediation for liver problems. Conclusions: Findings support the concept that off-premise alcohol outlets in the neighborhood environment may impact health and social outcomes, either directly or indirectly, through individual alcohol consumption and these associations may be heterogeneous with respect to race and ethnicity. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Aim: Alcohol in the media influences norms around use, particularly for young people. A recent spate of celebrity arrests for drinking and driving (DUI) has received considerable media attention. We asked whether these newsworthy events serve as teachable moments or problematic social modeling for young women. Method: Qualitative analysis of US media coverage of four female celebrities (Michelle Rodriguez, Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie and Lindsay Lohan) was conducted over the year following their DUL arrest (December 2005 through June 2008). The media sample included five television and three print sources and resulted in 150 print and 16 television stories. Results: Stories were brief, episodic and focused around glamorous celebrity images. They included routine discussion of the consequences of the DUI for the individual celebrities without much evidence of a consideration of the public health dimensions of drinking and driving or possible prevention measures. Conclusions: Our analysis found little material in the media coverage that dealt with preventing injury or promoting individual and collective responsibility for ensuring such protection. Media attention to such newsworthy events is a missed opportunity that can and should be addressed through media advocacy efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The minimum legal drinking age (MLDA) is widely believed to save lives by reducing traffic fatalities among underage drivers. Further, the Federal Uniform Drinking Age Act, which pressured all states to adopt an MLDA of 21, is regarded as having contributed enormously to this life-saving effect. This article challenges both claims. State-level panel data for the past 30 yr show that any nationwide impact of the MLDA is driven by states that increased their MLDA prior to any inducement from the federal government. Even in early-adopting states, the impact of the MLDA did not persist much past the year of adoption. The MLDA appears to have only a minor impact on teen drinking. ( JEL H11, K42) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The case-crossover (CC) design has proved effective to investigate the association between alcohol use and injuries in general, but has never been applied to study alcohol use and road traffic crashes (RTCs) specifically. This study aims at investigating the association between alcohol and meal consumption and the risk of RTCs using intrapersonal comparisons of subjects while driving. Methods: Drivers admitted to an Italian emergency room (ER) after RTCs in 2007 were interviewed about personal, vehicle, and crash characteristics as well as hourly patterns of driving, and alcohol and food intake in the 24 hours before the crash. The odds ratio (OR) of a RTC was estimated through a CC, matched pair interval approach. Alcohol and meal consumption 6 and 2 hours before the RTC (case exposure window) were compared with exposures in earlier control windows of analogous length. Results: Of 574 patients enrolled, 326 (56.8%) reported previous driving from 6 to 18 hours before the RTC and were eligible for analysis. The ORs (mutually adjusted) were 2.25 (95%CI 1.11-4.57) for alcohol and 0.94 (0.47-1.88) for meals. OR for alcohol was already increased at low (1-2 units) doses -2.17 (1.03-4.57) and the trend of increase for each unit was significant - 1.64 (95%CI 1.05-2.57). In drivers at fault the OR for alcohol was 21.22 (2.31-194.79). The OR estimate for meal consumption seemed to increase in case of previous sleep deprivation, 2.06 (0.25-17.00). Conclusion: Each single unit of acute alcohol consumption increases the risk of RTCs, in contrast with the "legal" threshold allowed in some countries. Meal consumption is not associated with RTCs, but its combined effects with sleepiness need further elucidation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the legislation regarding accidental death insurance for drunk driving. Accidental death and dismemberment insurance provides benefits for an insured's loss of life, limb, or sight due to accident. However, it is stated that these insurance policies do not clearly define what an accident or injury is, and the court decisions have resulted in inconsistent and conflicting results. It is stated that an insurer, after completing its claim investigation, often denies accidental death benefits on the grounds that the insured's conduct in driving while intoxicated is not accidental within the meaning of the insurance policy.

The article presents a study relating to the lowering of blood alcohol content level to avoid road accidents. According to the author, the study applies the European panel-based data (CARE) for the period 1991-2003 to evaluate the effectiveness of this modulation by applying the differences-in-differences method in a fixed effect estimation that allows for any pattern of correlation. It was inferred that drunk driving is one of the leading concerns on several European countries, thus, decided to lower their illegal Blood Alcohol Content levels to 0.5 mg/ml over the last decade. Furthermore, results show positive policy impacts, particularly on certain groups of victims, such as young males in urban zones.

Alcohol consumption in post-communist Kazakhstan remains at high levels and episodic heavy drinking, characteristic of the spirits-drinking regions of the former USSR, is still the national drinking style. Reported levels of alcohol-related harm are rising but assessment of trends in levels of consumption and harm is hindered by the disruption to data collection in the post-independence period and the continuing poor availability of public information. There is evidence however that changes in the republic's ethnic profile are connected with a downward trend in overall consumption rates, though changes in lifestyles may be leading to more drinking amongst women and young people. The numbers undergoing treatment for alcohol problems are greater than ever before. Alcohol problems are still perceived as entrenched and non-urgent, but in the present climate of greater stability and prosperity they are beginning to attract more attention from government. Underlying policy trends will depend on the overall direction of Kazakhstan's political and cultural development. This article assesses drinking patterns and related problems in Kazakhstan, and examines government responses and policies. The article is based on documentary research, visits to organisations and interviews. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On April 1, 1994, Ontario, Canada, instituted a new graduated driver license (GDL) system that effectively set the legal blood alcohol content (BAC) threshold at zero for the first few years of a youth's driving eligibility. I use data from the 1983–2001 Ontario Student Drug Use Surveys (OSDUS) to examine whether the Zero Tolerance (ZT) policy reduced self-reported drinking and alcohol-involved driving among youth. I find that rates of drunk driving reported by 16- to 17-year-olds—who faced new, lower legal limits after adoption of the ZT policy—were about 5 percentage points lower after the law was implemented. Visual inspection of the data, however, shows that the estimated reduction is an artifact of a pre-existing trend: Drunk driving rates in this age group were falling steadily throughout the 1980s and into the 1990s. Estimates that account for this pre-existing trend or that consider shorter windows around the 1994 implementation date return effects on alcohol-involved driving that are either small and statistically insignificant or large and implausibly signed (positive). These null findings are robust to using the associated change in outcomes for slightly younger (14–15) or slightly older (19–20) youths as controls in a difference-in-differences framework. I similarly find no robust effect on drinking participation. This suggests that Ontario's age-targeted drunk driving law—despite being harsher than similar policies in the United States—was not responsible for reductions in Canadian youth road fatalities over the past two decades. © 2006 by the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Since the 1980s, states have increasingly used sanctions to deter people from drinking-and-driving, but the effectiveness of these policies is questionable. The use of sanctions as policy tools rests on deterrence theory but little is known about the appropriateness of its behavioral assumptions for the group targeted by policy-- the drinking-driver. Employing a national survey of 4,008 respondents, we use logistic regression analysis to examine perceptions of punishment costs, the importance of individual versus societal costs, and policy preferences related to drink-driving. It was found that the perceptions of the punishment costs of drinking-and- driving are not consistent with basic hypotheses of deterrence theory The results suggest that policies based on deterrence theory are likely to be least effective for the main target of these policies (frequent drink-drivers) and are likely to be unnecessary for non-drink-drivers. An alternative set of behavioral assumptions is provided that more closely fit the results obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: The association between drunk driving (DD) and/or risky driving (RD) offences and subsequent hospitalization and mortality was studied during a 25-year period. Methods: Information about drinking habits and psychosocial factors for the 8122 conscripts from Stockholm County in 1969-1970 was linked to register data on hospitalization, mortality, DD and RD. Results: Analyses comparing background characteristics of DD and RD groups showed that the prevalence of problem behaviour and drug use was highest in the RD group. The relative risk (RR) for hospitalization after DD and/or RD was significantly elevated in multivariate logistic regression analysis for all the studied diagnostic categories (alcohol diagnoses, narcotic diagnoses, suicide attempts, psychoses, E-codes, all diagnoses), and was especially high for alcohol (RR = 7.2) and diagnosis of drug misuse (RR = 9.2). The RR of all hospitalization was 1.5 for the DD group, 1.8 for the RD group, and 1.9 for those who had been sentenced both for drunk driving and risky driving (DRD), all of which were significantly increased. The RR of death was significantly elevated in all three groups. Conclusions: The results show a significantly increased risk of hospitalization and mortality both in the DD and the RD group. From a public health and traffic safety perspective, this implies a need for developing and implementing better prevention strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Alcohol is a major factor in traffic crashes, and crashes involving alcohol are more likely to result in injuries and deaths than crashes where alcohol is not a factor. Increasing blood alcohol concentrations (BACs) have been linked to increased crash risk. Male drivers, particularly those ages 22 to 45; people with drinking problems and prior drinking and driving convictions; and drivers who do not wear safety belts are disproportionately likely to be involved in alcohol-related fatal crashes. Alcohol-dependent people are over-represented in all alcohol-related traffic crashes, as are those who begin drinking at younger ages. Though there are more than 82 million drinking-driving trips in a given year at BACs of 0.08 percent and higher (and 10 percent of drinking-driving trips are at BACs of 0.08 percent and higher), there are only 1.5 million arrests for drinking and driving each year. Despite overall marked reductions in alcohol-related traffic deaths since the early 1980s, there has been little reduction since the mid-1990s, and alcohol-related traffic deaths halle increased slightly in the past 3 years. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We present a methodology for measuring the risks posed by drinking drivers that relies solely on readily available data on fatal crashes. The key to our identification strategy is a hidden richness inherent in two-car crashes. Drivers with alcohol in their blood are seven times more likely to cause a fatal crash; legally drunk drivers pose a risk 13 times greater than sober drivers. The externality per mile driven by a drunk driver is at least 30 cents. At current enforcement rates the punishment per arrest for drunk driving that internalizes this externality would be equivalent to a fine of $8,000. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines role of alcohol taxation in alcohol-related traffic fatalities in the United States. Impact of taxes on driving under the influence of alcohol; Replication of a reduced-form model for taxation effects on traffic fatalities; Taxes as an important determinant of consumption; Relationship between beer taxes, beer consumption and traffic fatalities.

Data are presented from a screening study of ambulant attendees at two London Accident and Emergency (A&E) departments. Among young people (aged 16–24 years), 37.2% were drinking harmfully [an Alcohol-Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) score of 8 or more]; 17.3% admitted to drinking alcohol in the 6 h prior to attendance; and 14.6% considered that their attendance was alcohol related. Young women were as likely as men to score 8 or over. This age group had nearly twice the odds of scoring highly on the AUDIT, compared to those over 25 years old, and were more likely to report that their attendance was alcohol related. Screening in A&E departments would identify considerable numbers of young people who might benefit from brief intervention, but the problems of doing so are acknowledged. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

A study was conducted to assess the relative impact of partial sleep deprivation (restriction to 4 h sleep before testing) and full sleep deprivation (no sleep on the night before testing) on 2 h of simulated driving, compared with an alcohol treatment (mean blood alcohol content = 0.07%). Data were collected from the 64 male participants on the primary driving task, psychophysiology (0.1 Hz heart rate variability), and subjective self-assessment. The results revealed that the full sleep deprivation and alcohol group exhibited a safety-critical decline in lane-keeping performance. The partial sleep deprivation group exhibited only noncritical alterations in primary task performance. Both sleep-deprived groups were characterized by subjective discomfort and an awareness of reduced performance capability. These subjective symptoms were not perceived by the alcohol group. The findings are discussed with reference to the development of systems for the online diagnosis of driver fatigue. Potential applications of this research include the formulation of performance criteria to be encompassed within a driver impairment monitoring system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Presents several medical related issues in Great Britain. Reports on the blue paper related to primary health care; Association of road accidents with drunk drivers; Retirement of director Gordon McLachlan of Nuffield Provincial Hospitals Trust.

A letter to the editor is presented in response to an article about injuries caused during road accidents due to alcohol consumption in the March 1989 issue.

Many jurisdictions in the USA, Canada and some European countries use diagnostic methods to assess substance abuse problems of driving-while-intoxicated (DWI) offenders, to address the concern that, during DWI screening, offenders may not give accurate information on their criminal history and traffic violations to avoid referral to treatment. This study was designed to validate self-reported data, to assess the need for DWI agencies to access court records, and to obtain an offence profile for this population. DWI offenders (n=274, mostly first-time) were randomly selected from those who attended the Lovelace Comprehensive Screening Program (LCSP). The self-reported data were compared with records retrieved from the Metropolitan Court in Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA. Three-quarters of the offenders had had at least one offence or traffic violation before this DWI arrest. Sixty-five per cent of the offenders with court records underreported their records. The high percentage of false self-reporting for a primarily first-time offender population indicates the need to use court records to verify self-reported data. For multiple offenders, who have a much higher rate of criminal offences and traffic violations, checking self-reported data against court records becomes more important. In addition, a questionnaire based on offence profile information could be used to obtain a more complete history of those offences. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]