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Abstract
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Heavy alcohol consumers are over represented in the auto crash problem. While the exact contribution of the drinking driver to the total figure of auto crashes is not known and probably varies in different parts of the country in different years, there is no question that the correlation between alcohol and auto crashes is extremely strong. Official statistics for a number of reasons grossly underestimate the effect of alcohol in auto crashes.
There is apathy and ambivalence in regard to alcohol use including drinking and driving. Apathy is not hard to understand. Opinion surveys reveal that only ten per cent of the people feel that there is something bad or inherently stupid about the drinking driver. This is usually based upon personal experience. It is interesting to note that practically no one approves of the drunken driver, but most people are not interested enough to do anything about it.
Apathy and ambivalence in public attitude exists because locally and nationally there are no clearly defined standards as to what constitutes correct or appropriate drinking behavior and this includes drinking and driving. Not many people want to become involved in the drinking driver issue. If one expresses opposition to dangerous drinking it soon becomes confused with opposition to all drinking.
We as physicians, however, can not maintain a righteous non-involved attitude. An organized attack on the problem of alcohol and auto crashes will also be an attack in part of our Nations fourth largest public health problem. Drinking crash drivers are to a considerable extent a problem of alcoholism rather than a problem of the effect of alcohol on the casual drinker. One hundred million people use alcohol in the United States. Most combine drinking and driving at various times. However, the United States Department of Transportation reports that only four per cent of the people who combine drinking and driving are responsible for most of the serious alcohol related crashes. |