Contact: Sandy Bonzo
(770) 488-7298

Majority of Alcohol-Related Child Passenger Deaths Occur with Child Riding with a Drinking Driver
Drinking drivers also account for substantial number of nonfatal injuries to child passengers

CHICAGO -- The majority of drinking-driver related child passenger deaths in the United States involve a child riding unrestrained in the same vehicle with the drinking driver, according to an article in the May 3 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

Kyran P. Quinlan, MD, MPH, from the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, and colleagues examined the characteristics of crashes involving child passenger deaths and injuries associated with drinking drivers to identify opportunities for prevention. The authors analyzed 1985-1996 data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System on deaths among U.S. child passengers (age 14 and under), and 1988-1996 data from the General Estimates System on nonfatal injuries.

The authors found that in 1985-1996, 28 percent (5,555) of all child passenger deaths involved a drinking driver. Of those alcohol-related deaths, 64 percent occurred while the child was riding with a drinking driver, and 67 percent of these drinking drivers were old enough to be the parent or caregiver of the child.

According to the authors, this is different than what might be assumed from the popular media reports of children who are killed when the vehicle in which they are riding is hit by a drinking driver.

In this study the researchers found that of all drivers transporting a child who died, drinking drivers were more likely than nondrinking drivers to have had a previous license suspension (17.1 percent vs. 7.1 percent) or conviction for driving while intoxicated (7.9 percent vs. 1.2 percent). Child restraint use decreased as both the child's age and the blood alcohol concentration of the child's driver increased. Of the 3,246 child passengers with known restraint information who died while being transported by a drinking driver, just 584 (18 percent) were restrained in the fatal crash. In 1988-1996, an estimated 149,000 child passengers were nonfatally injured in crashes involving a drinking driver. Of these, 58,000 (38.9 percent) were riding with a drinking driver when injured in the crash.

According to information cited in the article, motor vehicle-related injury is the leading cause of death for children and young people aged 1 to 24 years in the United States. From 1985-1996, 24 percent of motor vehicle-related deaths among children involved alcohol; 68 percent of these alcohol-related deaths involved motor vehicle occupants.

"Strategies to specifically deter individuals from drinking and driving with children in the vehicle might include lower legal blood alcohol limits for drivers transporting children and child endangerment laws. ... Currently, 27 states have statutes that create special sanctions for cases of driving under the influence in which the convicted driver was transporting a child at the time of the offense. Two additional states have applied child abuse or neglect statutes in such situations."

Media Advisory: To contact Kyran P. Quinlan, MD, MPH, contact Sandy Bonzo at (770) 488-7298.

(The Journal of the American Medical Association. 2000; 283:2249-2252)

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If you would like to request a copy of the article, please call the Science News Department at (312) 464-5374 or 5904. For more information about the journal contact the American Medical Association's Mary Ann Schultz at (312) 464-4465 or e-mail Mary_Ann_Schultz@ama-assn.org.