DUI Related Deaths Underreported: Study

Drunk driving related deaths are severely underreported in the United States, according to a new study.

The study, published in the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs, sought to measure how many driving-while-under-the-influence (DUI) related deaths remain unreported on the death certificates of Unites States citizens annually.

According to the study, more than 450,000 people were killed in traffic crashes in the U.S. between 1999 and 2009. However, of those that died in accidents where alcohol was involved, researchers found that the majority of resulting death certificates failed to list alcohol as a cause of death.

According to the study, researchers only considered motor vehicle accident deaths  involving a driver with a blood alcohol content (BAC) of .08 percent or more -- which constitute DUI -- as an alcohol related death.

Analyzing U.S. vehicle accident reports and Multiple Cause of Death data -- a part of the national mortality data -- researchers were able to determine that fatal motor vehicle accidents involving a DUI have escalated in rate, rising from 19.9 percent of all fatal accidents in 1999 to 24.2 percent in 2009. However, the percentage of deaths attributed to alcohol and a motor-vehicle accident remained unchanged. This indicated that new deaths related to a DUI were no being recorded as so, likely being recorded as death by collision alone.

Furthermore, initial numbers of DUI-related deaths even in 1999 were discovered to have been underreported. Analyzing data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System, the research team was able to determine that while 21 percent of driver deaths reordered involved a BAC of .08 or higher, only 3 percent had their death certificates listing alcohol as a contributing cause.

Why is this important? Authors of the study say that these statistic are important tools in measuring the effectiveness of state DUI policies and alcohol restrictions and need to be accurate as possible for researcher and legislatures alike to obtain a proper understanding of how to prevent alcohol-related deaths.

The study was published in the March issue of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs.