The University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute (UMTRI) conducted an interesting comparison study of fatal traffic accidents in the United States compared with three other countries: the U.K., Sweden, and the Netherlands. The study found that the U.S. has higher rates of fatal crashes than similar European nations having comparable levels of economic activity and industrialization.
The UMTRI study, Why is Road Safety in the U.S. not on Par with Sweden, the U.K., and the Netherlands, Lessons to be Learned, Juha Luoma and Michael Sivak, January 2013, found that differences in national cultures, as well as in structural and procedural factors like types of safety programs, may be responsible for the much higher rate of U.S. fatal crashes compared to the other three nations.
The study for the U.S. focused on alcohol-related crashes, which according to WHO (World Health Organization) was responsible for 32% of all U.S. road fatalities in 2009 and on motorcycle crashes, which caused an additional 14% of the traffic deaths. In this article, our Pearland car crash lawyersexamine their conclusions regarding fatal drunken driving accidents.
WHO data for 2012 from the four countries studied showed that people aged 15 and above had the highest alcohol consumption per capita in the U.K., followed by Sweden, the Netherlands, and the U.S. BUT the United States and the U.K. allowed the highest legal BAC at 0.8%, followed by the Netherlands at 0.5% and Sweden at 0.2%.
Comparison of data for alcohol-related accidents demonstrates that people with a BAC of 0.8% actually have twice the risk of crashing as people with a BAC of 0.5%. Our Pearland car crash lawyers note that a BAC of 0.5% can be reached by the average adult male with just about one drink, and by the average adult female with less than a single drink.
Compared to the U.S. rate of 32% alcohol-related fatal wrecks in 2009, the other three countries had far lower alcohol involvement in fatal crashes, with the Netherlands at 25%, Sweden at 20%, and the U.K. at 17%. The Netherlands’ high rate of random breath testing by authorities succeeded in reducing the number of fatal alcohol-related accidents by about 67% between 1985 and 2005.
The Pearland car crash lawyers at Denena Points, PC mention that the high rate of binge drinking in the U.K. in conjunction for the fairly low rate of fatal drunken driving accidents could be the result of more people using public transportation, or drinking closer to home.
Based upon the comparison of alcohol-related fatal crash rates in the four studied countries, the researchers recommended:
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