LexRides

[roller]

April 9, 2009, 7:00 am
Study Links Alcohol and Bicycle Deaths
By Jennifer 8. Lee

Don’t drink and drive? What about “Don’t drink and bike?”

Some 21 percent of autopsies for New York City bicyclists who died within three hours of their accidents detected alcohol in the body, according to a Department of Health and Mental Hygiene study that examined fatal bicycling accidents in New York City from 1996 to 2005.

“It’s something we have to call attention to,” said Catherine Stayton, director of the health department’s injury epidemiology unit. “To learn this is new for us. We want to get that information out there.”

She said the study raises a lot of more of questions for researchers. “It makes you want to ask a lot more about the circumstances before the crash,” she said. The study also found that alcohol was detected in 6 percent of the drivers involved in bicycle crashes.

The study, which was published in the April issue of Traffic Injury Prevention, extended on research that had been released in a 2006 city report on bicycle accidents [pdf]. The studies drew data from the Police Department, the transportation department, the health department and the medical examiner’s office.

“We were able to look more closely at the injury and the alcohol,” said Ms. Stayton, explaining how the new information in this study.

Ms. Stayton cautioned that the data was somewhat limited because of nature of toxicology tests. Of the 225 bicyclists who died in fatal accidents during the 10-year time period, only 176 were tested for alcohol. But because alcohol is metabolized with time, only 84 of those cases the bicyclist had died within three hours of the crash were considered to have valid tests. Of those, 18 — or 21 percent — showed signs of alcohol.

Potentially, this could lead to an awareness campaign about drunken biking, akin to the now-familiar (and successful) anti-drunk driving campaigns that began in the 1980s that featured slogans like “Friends don’t let friends drive drunk” and “Don’t drink and drive, call for a ride,” as well as the idea of “designated drivers.”

Wiley Norvell, a spokesman for Transportation Alternatives, said: “It’s a no-brainer to be sober when you ride in New York City. Being alert and conscious of everyone else on the road is the best protection a bicyclist has, and biking while impaired makes our already dangerous streets an even greater risk.”

But he cautioned, “That said, let’s be careful about blaming victims, when it’s unclear whether alcohol was a contributing factor in any of these crashes.”

The bike fatality study also found that although New York had greater density, the rate of fatal bicycle accidents relative to the population was comparable with similar studies conducted on the urban core of Boston, Washington, Los Angeles and other cities.

The original study had been spurred in part by a request from Transportation Alternatives, an advocacy group that wanted the city to look systematically at bicycle deaths, which have been marked around the city by white “ghost bikes.”

Only 3 percent of the bicyclists who died were wearing helmets, according to available data. Head injuries contributed to three-quarters of bicycle deaths.

“The takeaway: wearing helmet can save lives,” Ms. Stayton said.

Also the overwhelming share of the deaths, 92 percent, involved a moving motor vehicle, while only one death in that period happened in a bicycle lane.

“There is safety in bike lane use and engineering changes in the city are heading in that direction,” Ms. Stayton said.

[elzie5000]

Good thing we're a bicycles and temperance club*.







*per our last two St Patrick's parade entry forms

[jkizzle]

Ill attest to this.

Riding home late one night from a rowdy night at lower48 and devassa, I got careless and nearly ran through a redlight, , veering onto a sidewalk just in time to be missed by several cars and a delivery truck. One more beer and 6 inches slower reaction time and I'd be a pancake right now.

Now, I walk if need be.

[sailorjames]

I wonder what other no-brainers one could get grants to research. I'd be more willing to read a study saying alcohol and cycling was linked to finding suitcases full of money.

[elzie5000]

Alcohol is so last year. In the current recession, its all about the horse.
I want to see a study of the impact of opiates on bike crashes.
http://amfix.blogs.cnn.com/2009/04/13/heroin-cheaper-than-beer/