The risk of dying in an alcohol-related crash increases during the New Year’s holiday, which should hardly be a surprise, but an analysis released on Tuesday by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety found that the average number of deaths from alcohol-related crashes on New Year’s Day was almost 150 percent higher than the average for the same day of the week during the holiday season.
With New Year’s festivities falling on a weekend this year, the risk for fatalities is anticipated to be even greater, according to the report.
The survey also indicated that while drinking and driving is viewed as a serious threat by nearly nine out of 10 drivers and that social disapproval is almost universal, one in 10 drivers surveyed admitted to driving at least once within the past 12 months with blood-alcohol levels likely close to or over legal limits. Additionally, more than half of those respondents reported drinking and driving more than once within that period.
“Intellectually, people seem to get it, but their behavior is still more, ‘Do as I say, not as I do,’” said Peter Kissinger, president and chief executive of the foundation.
Mr. Kissinger said new public opinion results show 90 percent of survey respondents supporting a law that would require all drivers having been convicted of drunken-driving charges more than once to use an alcohol-ignition interlock, a device that prevents the car from starting if the driver’s breath contains measurable alcohol. Meanwhile, 69 percent support requiring even first-time offenders to use them.
Survey findings were based on the foundation’s 2010 Traffic Safety Culture Index, a nationwide telephone survey of 2,000 residents aged 16 and older in the United States, conducted earlier this year by Abt SRBI Inc. New analysis of alcohol-related fatality data from 2000-9 was sourced from a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration database.
The foundation is encouraging drivers to sign an online pledge to not drink and drive. Additional information about the survey and other materials related to drunken driving is at AAAFoundation.org.
