Driving drunk kills and you better believe it

As an advocate of safe and responsible road usage I find it incumbent on me to take every opportunity to create awareness regarding such issues through whatever means and resources that I have, the best of which is information dissemination through my TV shows and this column.

Having said that, allow me now to pass on to you today, the eve of Christmas, some very alarming facts and figures that I have gathered from different sources regarding deaths caused by road crashes especially those that involve drunk driving – which many of you may find yourselves guilty of as days and days of merriment lay ahead.

A study by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the World Bank finds that traffic fatalities, including those caused by alcohol, are a serious world health problem that is often overlooked.

One in every 50 deaths worldwide is associated with road accidents, the study found. Each year, 1.2 million drivers, passengers, cyclists, and pedestrians are killed in traffic crashes. By 2020, traffic deaths are expected to increase by 80 percent as hundreds of millions of cars are added to the roads.

Among the recommendations in the 217-page report are measures for developing countries, such as India, China, and Southeast Asia. They include stricter enforcement of drunk-driving laws, better road designs, increased use of seatbelts, and improved design and inspection of vehicles.

Drunk driving has become a world menace. The World Health Organization lists road accidents as the “second leading cause” of death worldwide among the young aged 5 to 29. An estimated 40 percent of these accidents are attributed to driving under the influence of liquor or narcotics (DUI), or drunk driving.

The WHO says that road accidents cause 1.2 million deaths and 50 million injuries around the world each year. Some 480,000 of these deaths and 20 million of the injured are caused by drunk driving.

US statistics on drunk driving

Every year, over 17,000 people in America are killed in drunk driving accidents. In addition, roughly 500,000 people are injured each year in drunk driving accidents. That equates to one intoxication-related automobile death every 32 minutes, and a drunk driving injury every 4 minutes.

According to statistics maintained by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 17,013 people were killed in drunk driving accidents in 2003-an average of one death almost every half-hour. These deaths constituted approximately 40 percent of the 42,642 total traffic deaths in 2003. And this does not include drug-related crashes-which are also penalized under most DWI and DUI laws. In short, alcohol is the leading cause of motor vehicle deaths and injuries in the United States.

Many people believe they can drive without any problems with a few drinks in their system. The facts do not support this widely held belief. The risk of a driver being killed in a crash with a blood alcohol content (BAC) of .08 is at least 11 times that of drivers without alcohol in their system. At .10 BAC, the risk is at least 29 times higher. More than 20 percent of alcohol-related traffic deaths involve BAC levels below .10 percent. In fact, some studies conclude that a blood alcohol level as low as .02 affects your ability to drive and increases the likelihood of an accident. The probability of a crash begins to increase significantly at a blood alcohol content of .05 percent and climbs rapidly above .08 percent.

One out of 10 children ages 12 and 13 uses alcohol at least once a month. In a single year, 522 children under age 14 were arrested for driving while intoxicated, (113 of them were under 10 years old). 70 percent of all teenagers drink alcohol. 60 percent of all teen deaths in car accidents are alcohol-related. Statistics show that approximately 70% of all teenagers drink alcohol, including 1 out of 10 children between the ages of 12 and 13.

Local statistics courtesy of the HPG

To create more awareness on the importance of road safety, allow me also to cite some figures that have been sourced locally.

The Philippine National Police’s HPG (Highway Patrol Group), which was formerly known as TMG (Traffic Management Group), recently released data regarding the number of traffic accidents during the first half of 2008 indicating that it continued to increase from 1,532 in January to 1,648 in June.

In recording traffic accidents, authorities have to consider several factors such as the time of occurrence of accident: daytime/nighttime; the number of persons injured, if fatal, serious injury or minor injury; causes of accident, such as driver’s error, drunk driving, mechanical defect, over speeding, using cellular phones while driving, road defect/under repair, hit and run, bad overtaking, bad turning, overloading self accident, among others.

The place of occurrence is also recorded like if it is in a national road, an expressway, a provincial road, a city road, a municipal road or a barangay road. Also of importance is the type of vehicle – bus, truck, automobile, jeep, tricycle, motorcycle/scooters, and others.

The report also added that most of traffic accidents that occurred were in city roads and in national roads. Likewise in roads, where motorists tend over speed or lose control of their vehicles when passing through narrow, rough roads.

Within the past six years, the highest frequencies of accidents on national roads were recorded in 2004 with 4,028 and in 2006 with 4,300.

According to the data released by the HPG, driver’s error was the most common cause of accidents.

Latest statistics also show that motorcycles are the vehicles most often involved in road accidents and the figures are alarmingly increasing. For the first half of 2008, there has been recorded a total of 529 motorcycle accidents.

These figures don’t lie and those that are from local sources are only based on what have been reported.

The percentage of deaths and injuries caused by drunk driving as against the totals is indeed disturbing if not frightening and should awaken some sense of responsibility and concern among those who are still in the habit of taking their drinking for granted – with complete and wanton disregard of whether they would be driving after.

Now, what’s also distressing is the thought that some members of the country’s judiciary may also be nonchalant or unconcerned on the piling cases of drunk driving in their sala.

It may be true that our laws against drunk driving are difficult to implement due to the lack of equipment. But aren’t witnesses’ account, including police reports of involved drivers’ “reeking of liquor and incoherent in speech and action” enough for any judge to discern guilt?

In the light of this startling scenario of deaths and injuries due to drunk driving, I believe our local governments, with emphasis on those that have huge surplus in their coffers, should consider investing on equipment that are needed to pinpoint whether a driver, especially those involved in accidents, is driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

It should be part of the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) of the police’s accident investigation team to have drivers involved in accidents immediately undergo these alcohol and drug tests.

And to the public, please always remember that alcohol and driving should not mix – if you drink, don’t drive.

Happy Motoring!!!

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