carwrecks

After determining that it's not safe to get behind the wheel after taking even a single drink of alcohol, researchers at the University of California, San Diego want the nation’s states to lower their legal blood alcohol content (BAC) limits.

In all states, a blood alcohol content level at or above 0.08 percent is the legal limit for operating a motor vehicle, reports the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. Researchers at the university found that even lower levels may put drivers and their passengers at risk, however.

A little goes a long way

Led by sociologist David Phillips, researchers at the university analyzed data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), which includes information on all people in the U.S. who were involved in fatal car accidents. They looked at nearly 1.5 million people involved in fatal accidents from 1994 to 2008.

Drivers who believe they can drive with an alcohol “buzz” without putting themselves at risk are very much mistaken, says Phillips.

"We found that injuries from automobile accidents were more severe when drivers had any blood alcohol content, even as low as 0.01," Phillips says. "The rate of serious injuries among buzzed drivers was clearly higher than for sober drivers."

Phillips says the problem could stem from buzzed drivers being more likely to speed and less likely to wear seat belts. They also are more likely to crash into other cars, causing serious injuries. "When you have any alcohol in your system, not only do you drive poorly, but also your ability to make sound judgments worsens," he says.

Alcohol impairment can lead to crashes, lawsuits, jail time – and higher car insurance rates.

Researchers want states to reduce BAC limits

Phillips believes the evidence from the study is strong enough for every state to consider lowering its legal BAC. Until recently, some states had set their BACs at 0.10. As of this year, the legal limit was 0.08 in all 50 states, though some states such as Colorado can impose penalties with a BAC of .05 percent.

Phillips wants the U.S. to join countries such as Czech Republic, Brazil and Hungary, where it is illegal to drive with any alcohol in your system. If that's not realistic, he says the states could lower their blood-alcohol limits to 0.02 or 0.03 percent. Some other countries have adopted BACs of 0.02 percent, while others allow up to 0.05 percent.

"We hope our study, which provides empirical evidence for lowering the legal BAC even more, might influence U.S. legislators," Phillips says.

Concerns from MADD

Jan Withers, recently named president of Mothers Against Drunk Drivers (MADD), says she is not surprised by the study’s results. "We've always known that your judgment goes out the window the more you have to drink, and that when you get behind the wheel of a car drunk or buzzed you're putting not only yourself but others on the road at risk."

MADD wants people to choose a designated driver who will stay sober while the rest their party drinks. "That's our message over and over again, because it's so important," she says.

Despite the findings of the University of California, San Diego, Withers, whose daughter Alisa Joy was killed in 1992 by a drunk driver, doesn't believe states should lower their legal BACs any further.

"With every drink our sobriety levels go down," she says, "but at MADD we support the 0.08 blood alcohol content because that's the level the science and research shows is effective. MADD doesn't have an interest in pursuing anything lower than that."

Determining your BAC

Your blood alcohol level reflects how much alcohol is present in your blood as you drink. How much you can drink and still have a blood alcohol level below 0.08 depends on your gender, weight, the strength of your drinks and how much you eat while drinking.  A 120-pound woman typically would exceed the legal limit by consuming two drinks within one hour. A 180-pound man would hit the limit by consuming four drinks during the same period.

Source:  Beth Orenstein, written for www.insure.com

Drunken driving incidents have fallen 30 percent in the last five years, and last year were at their lowest mark in nearly two decades, according to a new federal report.

The decline may be due to the down economy: Other research suggests people are still drinking as heavily as in years past, so some may just be finding cheaper ways of imbibing than by going to bars, night clubs and restaurants.

"One possibility is that people are drinking at home more and driving less after drinking," said Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The CDC statistics — released Tuesday — are based on a 2010 national telephone survey of about 210,000 U.S. adults. The respondents were kept anonymous.

Nearly 1 in 50 said they'd driven drunk at least once in the previous month. That equates to about 4 million Americans driving drunk last year.

About 60 percent said they drove drunk just once, but some said they did it daily.

That led to a CDC estimate of more than 112 million episodes of drunken driving in 2010. That's more than 300,000 incidents a day.

CDC officials lamented that finding; still, it was the lowest estimate since the survey question was first asked in 1993, and down significantly from the 161 million incidents in the peak year of 2006.

Young men ages 21 to 34 were the biggest problem, accounting for just 11 percent of the U.S. population but 32 percent of the drunken driving incidents.

The overwhelming majority of drunken driving incidents involve people who had at least four or five drinks in a short period of time. But binge drinking has not been on the decline, other health research suggests.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has also noted signs of an apparent recent decline in drunken driving. According to that agency's latest data, the number of people killed in U.S. crashes involving alcohol-impaired drivers dropped from 11,711 in 2008 to 10,839 in 2009.

"While the nation has made great strides in reducing drunk driving over the years, it continues to be one of the leading causes of death and injury on America's roads — claiming a life every 48 minutes," added David Strickland, the agency's administrator, in a prepared statement.

Source:  http://www.cdc.gov/vitalsigns