Alcohol use and alcoholism among motor vehicle driver fatalities

In an ongoing project utilizing New Jersey State Medical Examiner data, all 218 motor vehicle driver fatalities in Essex County from 1979 through 1985 were classified as alcoholics with (1) positive brain/blood alcohol concentrations (BACs) or (2) negative BACs, or as non-alcoholics with (3) positive BACs or (4) negative BACs. Thirty-seven (17%) were classified as alcoholics, almost always based on autopsy findings of liver damage due to alcoholism. One-half of 173 cases with usable tests-64% of alcoholics and 47% of nonalcoholics-had positive BACs. Previous reports on the relative involvement of drinking and sober alcoholics in traffic accidents have been inconclusive.