STANDARDIZATION OF REPORTING ALCOHOL AND DRUG INVOLVEMENT IN FATAL CRASHES

Chair: Jim Fell (fell-jim@norc.org
Goal: 

The major aim of this interest group is to develop international guidelines on reporting drug and alcohol involvement in fatal (and serious injury) crashes so that meaningful comparisons can be made with regard to the involvement of alcohol (and in the future, other drugs) in fatal crashes.  In order to determine the magnitude of the alcohol impaired driving problem, help measure the effectiveness of various impaired driving countermeasures, and to enable countries from around the world to compare their alcohol-impaired driving problem with other countries of interest, the group recommends that each country require blood alcohol concentration (BAC) testing of all passenger car and truck drivers, motorcycle operators, pedestrians, and pedalcyclists killed in traffic crashes and report alcohol involvement at all relevant BAC levels (i.e BAC > 0.02, 0.05 and 0.08 g/dL) for each group. The standardized reporting of other impairing drugs in traffic fatalities is a future goal of this interest group.