Alcohol and Other Drug Use Among Victims of Motor-Vehicle Crashes--West Virginia, 2004-2005

Abstract

This article reports statistics from a study undertaken to measure the prevalence of alcohol and drug use among persons killed in motor-vehicle crashes in West Virginia in 2004-2005. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) analyzed 2004 and 2005 data reported by the West Virginia Office of the Chief Medical Examiner (OCME) to the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). This article summarizes the results of that analysis, which determined that the prevalence of drug use (25.8%) was similar to the prevalence of a blood alcohol concentration greater than .08 among persons killed in motor vehicle crashes. The authors consider how to tackle the complicated situation of monitoring this problem nationally. An editorial note appended to the article expands on the information presented, reviewing the national statistics that are available and how to extrapolate the West Virginia data to the United States as a whole. A final section considers the impact of enforcement on drug-impaired driving.