Drinking‐driving fatalities and consumption of beer, wine and spirits

Abstract

Drinking-driving is a leading cause of preventable morbidity and mortality in Canada. The purpose of this paper was to examine factors that influenced drinking driver deaths in Ontario. We examined the impact of per capita consumption of total alcohol, and of beer, wine and spirits separately, on drinking-driving deaths in Ontario from 1962 to 1996, as well as the impact of the introduction of Canada's per se law and the founding of People to Reduce Impaired Driving Everywhere - Mothers Against Drunk Driving (PRIDE - MADD) Canada. We utilised time-series analyses with autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) modelling. As total alcohol consumption increased, drinking driving fatalities increased. The introduction of Canada's per se law, and of PRIDE-MADD Canada, acted to reduce drinking driving death rates. Among the specific beverage types, only consumption of beer had a significant impact on drinking driver deaths. Several factors were identified that acted to increase and decrease drinking driver death rates. Of particular interest was the observation of the impact of beer consumption on these death rates. In North America, beer is taxed at a lower rate than other alcoholic beverages. The role of taxation policies as determinants of drinking-driving deaths is discussed.

Population drinking and drink driving in Norway and Sweden: an analysis of historical data 1957–89

“…Generally, the finding of an aggregate link between alcohol consumption and DWI is in line with previous research [31,36]. Although detailed comparisons are hampered by differences in model specification, the outcome from our semi-log models can at least be compared with the findings reported for Ontario [38]. On the basis of a time-series analysis of Ontario data spanning the period 1962-96, it was found that a 1-litre increase in per capita alcohol consumption was associated with an increase in drinking-driving deaths of 13%.…”

“…Because these methods do not consider the particular complications associated with time-series data in the form of time trends and autocorrelated residuals [39], the reported findings are not reliable. The autoregressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) method applied in the two fairly recent studies [37,38] has been criticized because it removes time trends routinely, instead of first testing whether it is warranted to retain the trends in the analyses (see below) [40]. The current study thus improves upon previous investigations by a more rigorous initial analysis of the temporal structure of the data in order to determine which technique for time-series modelling is most appropriate.…”

“…A recent literature search in ISI, Google Scholar and MedLine (April 2012) retrieved eight studies in the English language literature that have assessed the association between total alcohol consumption and DWI (see Table 1). These studies mainly show some indication of a positive correlation between total alcohol consumption and DWI [31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38]. While these studies are suggestive of an association between population drinking and DWI, the methods applied in most of these studies [31][32][33][34][35][36] rely typically upon simple correlation or regression analyses.…”

Drinking and Driving in the United States: Comparing Results from the 2007 and 1996 National Roadside Surveys

“…Research suggests that only one driver is arrested for DUI for every 300 to 1,000 episodes of alcohol-impaired driving (Beitel et al 2000, Voas and Hause 1987). Clearly, drinking and driving continues to be a leading, preventable cause of death in the United States (Mann et al 2006; NHTSA, 2006). To address this problem, we must identify today’s drinking drivers and the conditions under which they are driving.…”

Federal Impaired Driving Policy: Moving Beyond Half Measures

“…Impaired driving deaths in Canada peaked in the early 1980s (Mayhew, Beirness, and Simpson 2000), prompting an unparalleled flurry of federal and provincial amendments and the launching of major public awareness and education campaigns (Asbridge et al 2004;Degutis et al 2004;Mann et al 2006). There was a sharp rise in lawsuits against licensed establishments, other alcohol providers, and those hosting alcohol-related events on their property (Solomon 1987).…”