Drunk walking
A drunken walker can't harm or kill someone else the way a drunk driver can and people who drive can tackle much farther distances than they can walk. Thomas Esposito who works at Loyola University Health System outside of Chicago as a trauma surgeon, consistently sees a spike in patients who have been struck by cars particularly during the December holiday. [1] Pedestrians under the influence of alcohol were less likely to use crosswalks and more likely to cross against the traffic lights. Alcohol use is connected to more severe injuries with longer hospital stays when they were hit. [2]
Statistics
U.S. department of transportation data from 2009 reported that 4092 pedestrians were killed and 13.6 of them were under the influence of alcohol, drugs or medication.[3] Pedestrian injury commonly results in harmful and costly injuries and reports for 11% of all road user fatalities. In the United States in 2006 there were 4,784 fatalities and 61,000 injuries from pedestrian injury. In 2007 there were 4,654 fatalities and 70,000 injuries. In Canada, injury is the prominent source of death for those under 45 years of age and the fourth most collective reason of death for all ages. Traumatic pedestrian injury results in nearly 4000 hospitalisations in Canada yearly. The outcome of these injuries come from the interaction of environmental factors changing. [4]
In 2011, The Pedestrian Council of Australia launched a campaign called "Never Let a Mate Walk Home Drunk", in an effort to curb the high number of pedestrians killed on Australian roads. A huge 20% of pedestrians killed on Australians roads have a BAC exceeding 0.15%,[5] and 30% of those killed or seriously injured have a BAC over 0.05%. [6]
Between 2003-2006 in Adelaide there were 40 pedestrian fatalities, and of those 12 were found to be drunk. In three or four of these cases it was found that they were either lying or sitting on the ground at night.[7] In the country as a whole it seems that men are the biggest culprits with a study done between 1998-2002 with 38% of fatal incidents to pedestrians happening to males ages 15-54, and out of those 78% were over the legal limit to drive.[8]
See also
References
- ^ Huynh, Diana. "The Perils of Drunk: A New Marketplace Podcast". Freakonomics. Freakonomics. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
- ^ Cohen, Josh (February 9, 2015). "When drunk walking is outlawed, only outlaws will walk drunk". The Works. Retrieved 3 April 2015.
- ^ "safety traffic facts 2009" (PDF). www.nhtsa.gov. U.S department of transport. 2009. Retrieved 15/4/15.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help) - ^ Schuurman, N; Cinnamon, J; Crooks, VA; Hameed, SM (2009). "Pedestrian injury and the built environment: An environmental scan of hotspots". BMC public health. doi:10.1186/1471-2458-9-233.
{{cite journal}}:|access-date=requires|url=(help)CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link) - ^ "Pedestrian Council of Australia". 2015. Retrieved 2015-04-13.
- ^ "The Stats | MAC". www.mac.sa.gov.au. Retrieved 2015-04-15.
- ^ "Accidents to intoxicated pedestrians in South Australia" (PDF). Centre of automotive safety research. February 2009. Retrieved 15/4/15.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|accessdate=(help) - ^ "Male pedestrian fatalities" (PDF). www.infrastructure.gov.au. Australian transport saftey bureau. Retrieved 15/4/15.
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