Recidivist Driver Involvement in Fatal Highway Accidents in Alberta, Canada,

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1 Recidivist Driver Involvement in Fatal Highway Accidents in Alberta, Canada, Gerda Bako,a Walter C. MacKenzie, and E. S. O. Smith INTRODUCTION The province of Alberta in Canada, like other parts of the world, is experiencing an unrelenting increase in the number and the severity of traffic accidents. In 1973 the Minister of Health and Social Development commissioned a Task Force on Highway Accidents4 to collect, review and assess information and data from any source pertaining to the incidence and causes of motor vehicle crashes in the Province under the chairmanship of Dr Walter C. MacKenzie, former Dean and Professor Emeritus of Surgery in the Faculty of Medicine, University of Alberta. Our terms of reference were to report our findings to the Minister in 18 months and make such recommendations for consideration by the Minister which might reduce the incidence of injury and death by motor vehicle accidents; and also to propose areas of research for future study. Our approach was primarily an epidemiological one, based on the excellent files available in the office of the Chief Coroner of the province.1we also sought the views and opinions of individuals and of a great num ber of organisations concerned with highway safety in all parts of the world. The Coroner s files contained information from police, the courts, hospitals and so on, who were involved in the fatal crashes. We compiled an extensive amount o f data which we then grouped into ten categories in order to utilise them effectively: 1. Accidents, general 2. Fatally injured persons 3. Fatally injured drivers who caused the accident 4. Driver survivors who caused the accident 5. Fatally injured passengers 6. Fatally injured pedestrians 7. Fatally injured motorcyclists 8. Fatally injured bicycle riders 9. The young driver who caused the accident 10. The im paired driver who caused the accident I will report only on a segment of group 3 and 4, the fatally injured and the surviving driver who caused the fatal crash. METHODOLOGY For each individual in our survey, 64 variables related to the person, to the vehicle, and to the environment were coded and assessed by using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS).3 A person was coded as having caused a crash partly or fully only if the records of enforcement agencies or the courts indicated this to be the case, but unsubstantiated inform ation as for instance may have fallen asleep was coded as not know n. a Research Director, Task Force on Highway Accidents, Province of Alberta, Canada. 137

2 138 G. Bako, W. C. M ackenzie and E. S. O. Smith Impairment was coded for a person when the blood alcohol level was in excess of the legal limit of 0.08% or when there was no doubt of impairment, as for instance, where tests were not performed or could not be, but the judgm ent of the court or admission by the accused and evidence of witnesses left no doubt about impairedness. Uncertain cases were always coded as not know n. RESULTS A N D DISCUSSION We had in our province during highway fatalities at a rate of 26.7 per population per year. A total of 454 culpable drivers were fatally injured, and 400 survived the crash, giving a total o f 854 drivers responsible for 1045 fatal accidents. Since approximately 50% of fatal crashes4 were alcohol related, we surveyed the driving records of all culpable drivers at the D epartm ent of Transportation2 and received information on 742 persons. We found that 11% (82) of culpable drivers had previous records for impaired driving during the ten years prior to the time o f crash. Some 83% of drivers had only one, but 17% had more than one impaired driving offence, while 87% of recidivists or repeaters were impaired again at the time of the fatal crash. 112 persons were killed by this group. We discovered one recidivist driver who had caused two fatal accidents in one year, surviving both of them, and killing four people: three teenagers and one small boy. He probably is still driving on our roads. In contrast to the 11% of recidivism in culpable drivers only 3% of exonerated drivers had previous records for im paired driving. Although our sample of recidivists was not large, 82, we nevertheless, felt it to be important to focus on these drivers and find out how they would compare in respect to a number o f selected variables to the average driving population as a control. For this control group we chose the total 101 fatally injured innocent drivers, revealed in our own survey to be over 15 years of age and without previous record of impaired driving. We assumed the nature of involvement of these persons in the accident situation to be a random sample o f the driver population on the road at the time o f the crash. We restricted our survey to the most completely documented aspects of the crashes but we believe that other significant differences would surface on further study and if more com prehensive data were obtained. TABLE I Statistically Significant Differences between Case and Control Group. Case Control # % # % A ee-distribution N = 822 N = only dead drivers, recidivists excluded 2 recidivist impaired drivers only (dead and alive)

3 FataI Highway Accidents in Alberta, Canada, TABLE I (Cont d) S tatistically Significant D ifferences between Case and C ontrol Group. Case Control # % # % Sex N = 82' N = 1011 male female Had been drinking yes probably not BA C (%) < not known BAC (%) known < > TOTAL Ethnic group British Isles German, Austrian Ukranian, Polish, Russian Skand., Dan., French and Other Indian, Metis not known* *Difference between known and not known values: x2 = 290, d.f. 1, not significant at.05 level o f confidence. Class of accident no collision with motor vehicle with train, mot. cycle, pedestrian, fixed obi. or other TOTAL *1 other **6 pedestrians, 1 mot. cycles, 1 train, 9 fix. obj., 2 other. 19** * Type of collision head-on run off rd, overturn rear-end n f 6.9 side-swipe, other right-angle not known A g e (Table 1, Figure 1) The difference in the age structure was found to be significant with 99% confidence. Recidivists outranked the controls in the year age-groups and, by the way, were male

4 140 G. Bako, W. C. M ackenzie and E. S. O. Smith 12% more often than female. O f course, age is closely related to the probability of having been convicted for drunk driving as the time of exposure increases with age. And, furthermore, problem drinkers are represented in greater numbers in the over 25 year age-groups than in younger ages.5 One should note that the controls were rather evenly spread throughout all ages. Socio-econom ic S ta tu s and M a rital Status (Table II) The comparison of socio-economic status and marital status did not reveal any significant differences between the two groups, m ainly because we had inadequate information. Type o f Vehicle and N um ber o f O ccupants ( Table II) The type of vehicle driven, also, did not differ significantly between the case and the control, however, recidivists drove defective vehicles more often than controls. The num ber of occupants in the vehicle at the time of crash was greater in the cars driven by recidivists than in control cars, but the difference was not statistically significant. D rin kin g Prior to Crash ( Table I, Figure 1) Drinking prior to the crash, that is independent o f testing, was more frequent for recidivists than controls and the difference was significant with over 99% confidence. Also shown are the proportions for case and controls where it was not known if persons were drinking. B lo o d A lco h o l C ontent (Table I, Figure 1) Alcohol tests were not performed in the same manner among case and control. Dead recidivists were tested in 97% of cases, but surviving recidivists in only 51%. Of the controls, all being dead, 81% were tested. The recidivists survivor, obviously, had a better chance than the fatally injured to avoid being detected as impaired, even if he indeed had been drunk, because in many instances he had the opportunity to refuse a test. The blood alcohol content differed significantly between the case and the control. 87% of tested recidivists compared to 13% of tested controls were legally impaired at the time o f the crash. Therefore, 74% more recidivists had a BAC o f over 0.08%. E thnic B a ckground (Table I, Figure 2) In respect to the ethnic background of drivers we found that in studying our native Indians and Metis, there were 15% more recidivists than there were drivers without a previous record. This lends support to the great concern of our Native Leaders about the high social and economic cost resulting from highway accidents involving native people. E m ploym ent Situation ( Table II) The difference in employment situation between the case and control was not found to be o f significance, although, more recidivists were unemployed than controls.

5 Fatal Highway Accidents in Alberta, Canada, AGE GROUP CASE CONTROL 100 n HAD BEEN DRINKING L PROBABLY NOT (N.K.)DRINKING LTi OC.' OC Known Cases ) i Figure Per cent difference between culpable recidivist and exonerated drivers without record for impaired driving by age-group, drinking prior to the fatal crash, and by BA C% of tested drivers. Class o f A ccident (Table I, Figure 2) The class of accidents, such as accidents without collision (as running off the road etc.), collision with another motor vehicle and collision with motor cycle, train, pedestrian or fixed object, differed significantly between case and control. Recidivists ran off the road and

6 142 G. Bako, W. C. M ackenzie and E. S. O. Smith collided more frequently with motor cycles, trains, pedestrians or fixed objects than controls. The higher percentage of controls being in crashes with other vehicles results from the fact that they were hit by culpable drivers and culpable recidivists. 30 -j O' > 20 - O' o & 10-0 ETHNIC GROUP 0 BRIT. GERM. UKR..P0L. SCAND., IND., ISLES AUSTRIA RUSSIA DENMARK METIS FR., OTHERS CASE CONTROL CLASS of COLLISION NO COLL. MOTOR VEHICLE MOT.CYCLE TRAIN,PEDEST. FIXED OBJECT TYPE of HEAD-ON RAN-OFF REAR-END COLLISION ROAD, OVERTURN SIDE SWIPE, OTHER ANGLE N.K. Figure 2 Per cent difference between culpable recidivist and exonerated drivers without record for impaired driving by ethnic group, class of collision, and bv type of collision.

7 Fatal Highway Accidents in Alberta, Canada, TABLE II Differences between Case and Control Group; Results o f Statistical Tests. Levels of Statistical Significance Statistically Significant Previous records for impaired driving <.01 yes 1. Age distribution <.01 yes 2. Sex <.02 yes 3. Socio-economic status _* not known 4. Marital status not known 5. Type of vehicle driven >.05 no 5a Defects in vehicle >.05 no 6. Number of occupants in vehicle >.05 no 7. Had been drinking <.001 yes 8. BAC test done >.05 no 9. BAC % <.001 yes 9a. BAC zero or less than 0.08 and over 0.08% <.001 yes 10. Ethnic group <.001 yes 11. Employment situation _* not known 12. Class of accident <.001 yes 13. Type of collision <.001 yes *For these variables the frequency of unknown values was too great for the calculation of reliable differences. Type o f Collision (Table I, Figure 2) A significant difference was also observed between case and control in the type of collision. As would be expected from the middle graph of Figure 2, 24% more recidivists than controls ran off the road, overturned, and 12% more recidivists than controls side-swiped other vehicles. Head-on, rear-end and angle collisions were greater for control than case, because they frequently represented the target in these kinds o f collisions. S U M M A R Y We found that difference between the two groups of drivers were significant with 95% or more confidence for (Table II): previous records for impaired driving - a g e sex drinking prior to the crash, not necessarily im pairm ent blood alcohol content ethnic group class of accident, and type o f collision. Differences were N OT significant for (Table II): the type o f or defect in the vehicle driven the num ber o f occupants in the vehicle, and BAC tests done; this differed only between dead and surviving recidivists. For the rest o f the variables (Table II): socio-economic status marital status, and employment situation the significance in difference is not known. All significant differences found, support the well known, serious deficiency in driving attitudes observed in other countries. We tried to docum ent the situation in our province

8 144 G. Bako, W. C. M ackenzie and E. S. O. Smith to support and emphasise the need of legislation related to improve driver education and the problem o f im paired driving. We demonstrated to the Minister the importance of an evaluation of recidivist drivers on our roads and proposed more comprehensive studies for the future. Forty-seven of the surviving 82 recidivists have probably by now joined the motoring public together with an unknown num ber of newcomers. These people, unfortunately, are again in a position to maim and kill innocent people. We are happy to say, that our proposals to the Minister in respect to recidivism and other aspects o f road safety aimed at reducing our accident rate, have been given serious consideration; and the Government of our Province has established an implementation committee to faciliate the introduction o f many o f our recommendations. REFERENCES 1. Chief Coroner o f Alberta, Traffic Fatality Files for Edmonton, Alberta. 2. Government of Alberta, Department of Transportation, Edmonton, Alberta. 3. Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS), New York, McGraw, Task Force on Highway Accidents; Report to the Minister of Social Services and Community Health, the Honourable Helen Hunley, Alberta, September, Voas, R. B. Alcohol, Drugs and Young Drivers, Traffic Safety Program, U.S. Dept, of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Washington, D.C., May 1974.

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