NCJ Number
158874
Date Published
1995
Length
6 pages
Annotation
This document provides data on alcohol involvement in fatal traffic crashes in the United States in 1994.
Abstract
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) defines a fatal traffic crash as being alcohol-related if either a driver or a nonoccupant had a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.01 grams per deciliter or greater in a police-reported traffic crash. A BAC of 0.10 grams per deciliter is considered to be intoxicated. Traffic fatalities in alcohol-related crashes dropped by 5 percent from 1993 to 1994. NHTSA estimates that alcohol was involved in 40.9 percent of fatal crashes and in 6 percent of all crashes in 1994. The 16,589 fatalities in alcohol-related crashes during 1994 represent an average of one alcohol-related fatality every 32 minutes. In 1994, 32 percent of all traffic fatalities occurred in crashes in which at least one driver or nonoccupant was legally intoxicated. More than two-thirds of the 13,094 people killed in such crashes were themselves intoxicated. The remaining one-third were passengers, nonintoxicated drivers, or nonintoxicated nonoccupants. Tables, figures