Choices about alcohol are never made in isolation. Making a decision whether to drink and how much to drink affects family members, employers, and friends. When drinking behaviors extend to secondary decisions related to drinking, such as whether to drive after drinking, the impact reaches even more people.
Traffic accidents caused by intoxicated drivers cause fatalities, often even killing children. A recent study by Mike Males examined the traffic crash victimizations of children and teenagers by intoxicated drivers aged 21 and older.
The study was conducted because the research on motor-vehicle crash victimizations has not been defined in detail. The prior data has not outlined the fatalities inflicted by drinkers 21 years and older on children and teenagers.
The study used the Fatality Analysis Reporting System’s online encyclopedia to extract the cases of fatal crashes caused by drivers who tested positive for alcohol use. The data used was from 1998 to 2007. The data was used to cross-tabulate information from the other drivers, passengers, and vehicle non-occupants involved in the same crashes.
The cross-tabulation identified the relationships of ages of drinking drivers to ages, injury severity and person type of corresponding victims. The National highway Traffic Safety Administration estimates were used to estimate the alcohol-related victimizations by driver and victim age.
The results of the information gathered show that drinking drivers aged 21 and older were responsible for 2.7 million accidents from 1998 to 2007. These accidents victimized individuals younger than age 20, resulting in 3,630 child deaths below the age of 16. There were 4,290 teens killed between the ages of 16 and 19.
In addition, 470,000 children and 390,000 teens were injured. The data also showed that drinking drivers aged 21 years and older account for 1.3 times more traffic accidents involving teenage drivers than vice versa. They also account for large majorities of passenger and nonoccupant alcohol-related traffic accidents resulting in injury or fatality for children and teens.
The study’s results reveal that if they were calculated separately, drinking and driving by individuals aged 21 and older would be the sixth leading cause of death for teenagers and the ninth leading cause of death for children.
The research done by Mike Males highlights the need for more education about the dangers posed to children and teenagers when individuals choose to drive after consuming alcohol. The decision to drink and drive is inherently a decision to endanger children.
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