Statistics compiled from NHTSA FARS Data and California Highway Patrol

A Look At The Year 2002 Of Driving Impaired

(Statistics As of May 2003)

NATION-WIDE:

Preliminary statistics for 2002 indicate an increase again in alcohol-related traffic fatalties. An estimated 17,970 were killed in 2002 – an increase of 500 deaths over 2001. 42% of all traffic fatalities were alcohol-related in 2002. One positive note is that injuries decreased in alcohol-related crashes in 2002 when approximately 252,000 were injured, a -8.4% decrease from 2001 when 275,000 were injured.

From 1980 – 1999 the number of alcohol-related traffic fatalities declined but progress leveled off and deaths are again on the rise. 2001 showed an increase in alcohol-related traffic fatalities from 2000. 17,448 people were killed in 2001, an increase of 68 deaths over 2000.

Three out of every ten Americans will be involved in an impaired driving crash in their lifetime. Approximately 49 people are killed across the country each day in alcohol-related traffic collisions. One person is killed every 30 minutes and one is injured every 26 seconds. Direct costs of alcohol-related crashes are estimated to be $114 billion yearly.

IN SAN DIEGO COUNTY:

In 2002, 95 people were killed in San Diego County and 3,077 were injured in alcohol-related traffic collisions. These stats represent a 22 percent decrease from the 122 persons who were killed in San Diego County in 2001…but a one percent increase from the 3,050 injured. In 2000, 83 were killed and 2,892 were injured.

FOR CALIFORNIA:

The number of people killed and injured in alcohol-related crashes in California has decreased over 40% since administrative license revocation (ALR) and the lower .08 blood content (BAC) laws went into effect in 1990.

In 2002, 1,206 Californians were killed in alcohol-related traffic collisions and 31,847 were injured. These statistics represent an 8% decrease in DUI fatalities and a less than 1 percent increase in injuries from 2001 when 1,308 were killed and 31,847 were injured. Alcohol-related traffic deaths have declined significantly since 1987 when deaths in California reached a high of 2,754. California law enforcement officials credit tough drunk driving laws and mandatory seat belt laws for significantly lowering the highway fatality rate, but there are concerns that gains have leveled off and deaths have increased in the last few years.

(Statistics compiled from NHTSA FARS Data and California Highway Patrol)

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Study: Alcohol Abuse Is Deadly Problem For College Students

1,400 Deaths A Year Linked To Drinking

POSTED: 11:09 a.m. PDT April 9, 2002
UPDATED: 6:18 a.m. PDT April 10, 2002

WASHINGTON — An estimated 1,400 college students are killed every year in alcohol-related accidents, according to a study released Tuesday that researchers call the most comprehensive look ever at the consequences of student drinking.

“Half the World Trade Center casualties are happening every year in our colleges,” said one researcher, Mark Goldman, a psychology professor at the University of South Florida.

The researchers say the figures show that college drinking needs to be seen as a major health concern.

“Historically, I think there has been the view that whatever college students are doing, it’s not that serious a problem, it’s a rite of passage,” said another researcher, Kenneth J. Sher, a psychology professor at the University of Missouri-Columbia.

The study by the federally supported Task Force on College Drinking estimated that drinking by college students contributes to 500,000 injuries and 70,000 cases of sexual assault or date rape. Also, 400,000 students between 18 and 24 years old reported having had unprotected sex as a result of drinking.

The study does not say whether the problems are increasing or decreasing. A Harvard School of Public Health survey released last month reported that more students are abstaining from alcohol, but levels of binge drinking — having at least four or five drinks at a sitting — are the same as in the early 1990s.

The new report was one of 24 studies commissioned by the task force of college presidents, scientists and students convened by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism. The institute is part of the National Institutes of Health.

Most of the papers will be published in the forthcoming March issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol.
The Rev. Edward A. Malloy, president of the University of Notre Dame and the task force co-chairman, said the report should motivate universities to tackle the problem of drinking on campus.

“All you have to do is look at a couple of cable television channels who cover spring break where endless groups of drunken students get up and say `I’m having the greatest time here’ and then you recognize on the basis of these statistics what the fallout of the great time is,” he said at a news conference unveiling the report.
Researchers integrated various databases and survey results to reach their findings.

Motor vehicle fatalities were the most common form of alcohol-related deaths. The statistics included college students killed in car accidents if the students had alcohol in their blood, even if the level was below the legal limit.

Students who died in other alcohol-related accidents, such as falls and drownings, were included. Those who died as a result of homicides or suicides were not.

Chief researcher Ralph Hingson of the Boston University School of Public Health said he believes the estimates are more likely to be too conservative than overstated.

“I think actually getting the numbers out will help the public understand that this is a very large problem, perhaps a larger problem than people might have otherwise thought,” he said.

Hingson and his colleagues say studies have shown what works — and what doesn’t — in deterring alcohol use.

Goldman said general messages warning of the dangers of alcohol do not appear to be effective with college students, at least by themselves. What’s more effective is teaching students how to resist peer pressure.

“Many of the students don’t want to do it, but they don’t know how to say no,” he said.

Communities and colleges need to work together as well to prevent underage drinking and limit the number of stores that sell alcohol, he said.

“The university can’t do them by themselves because even if they did effective things, it might just squeeze it off into the community,” Goldman said.

Story from NBCSandiego.com and The Associated Press