National Center for Statistics & Analysis People Saving People 29 th Annual Traffic Records Forum, Denver, CO Alcohol Reporting and Estimation in FARS 1 Session 10 Estimating and Reporting Alcohol Involvement in Fatal Crashes using NHTSA’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) Monday, July 14, 2003 Dennis Utter, Moderator Mathematical Analysis Division

National Center for Statistics & Analysis People Saving People 29 th Annual Traffic Records Forum, Denver, CO Alcohol Reporting and Estimation in FARS 2 NHTSA Priority Program Areas  Safety Belt Use  Impaired Driving  Inter-Vehicle Compatibility  Rollover  Data

National Center for Statistics & Analysis People Saving People 29 th Annual Traffic Records Forum, Denver, CO Alcohol Reporting and Estimation in FARS 3 Persons Killed by Highest BAC in Crash Highest BAC in Crash Year % Change Total Alcohol Related17,38017, % Alcohol Fat/100M VMT0.63 % All Fatalities41% Impaired (0.01 <= BAC <= 0.07)2,5112, % Intoxicated (BAC = 0.08+)14,87014, % Source: FARS Source: 2000 Final FARS, 2001 Annual Report File

National Center for Statistics & Analysis People Saving People 29 th Annual Traffic Records Forum, Denver, CO Alcohol Reporting and Estimation in FARS 4 Persons Killed in Alcohol- Related Traffic Crashes Source: Final FARS, 2001 Annual Report File

National Center for Statistics & Analysis People Saving People 29 th Annual Traffic Records Forum, Denver, CO Alcohol Reporting and Estimation in FARS 5 Alcohol Involvement in Fatal Crashes Source: Final FARS, 2001 Annual Report File

National Center for Statistics & Analysis People Saving People 29 th Annual Traffic Records Forum, Denver, CO Alcohol Reporting and Estimation in FARS 6 New DOT Performance Measure for Alcohol Related Fatalities, by Year Alcohol Related Fatalities per 100 M VMT, by Year 0.53 Source: Final FARS, 2001 Annual Report File

National Center for Statistics & Analysis People Saving People 29 th Annual Traffic Records Forum, Denver, CO Alcohol Reporting and Estimation in FARS 7 Tracking Alcohol Involvement Requires knowing BAC Levels  Blood Alcohol Concentration… …is the only variable used to determine alcohol involvement in fatal crashes. It is expressed in grams/dl and can range between 0 and 0.94, although a BAC value above 0.4 is considered rare, and highly toxic! BAC is collected, coded and reported to FARS through a highly complex set of processes. A large number of cases do not have reported BAC values.

National Center for Statistics & Analysis People Saving People 29 th Annual Traffic Records Forum, Denver, CO Alcohol Reporting and Estimation in FARS 8 Agenda  BAC Testing, Coding and Reporting in FARS.  Estimation (Imputation) of Missing BAC in FARS  BAC Testing Study – Summary of Findings and Recommendations to Improve BAC Testing in States.

National Center for Statistics & Analysis People Saving People 29 th Annual Traffic Records Forum, Denver, CO Alcohol Reporting and Estimation in FARS 9  BAC Reporting in FARS – Coding and Collection  Multiple Imputation: BAC Estimation Procedure  Testing for Impaired Drivers in Motor Vehicle Traffic Crashes The rest of this session will cover… Kathy Silks

National Center for Statistics & Analysis People Saving People 29 th Annual Traffic Records Forum, Denver, CO Alcohol Reporting and Estimation in FARS 10 Alcohol Involvement in Fatal Crashes Source: Final FARS, 2001 Annual Report File

National Center for Statistics & Analysis People Saving People 29 th Annual Traffic Records Forum, Denver, CO Alcohol Reporting and Estimation in FARS 11 Persons Killed by Highest BAC in Crash Highest BAC in Crash Year % Change Total Alcohol Related17,40017, % Alcohol Fat/100M VMT % All Fatalities41% Impaired (0.01 <= BAC <= 0.07) 2,5422, % Intoxicated (0.08 <= BAC) 14,85815, % Source: FARS

National Center for Statistics & Analysis People Saving People 29 th Annual Traffic Records Forum, Denver, CO Alcohol Reporting and Estimation in FARS 12 Persons Killed in Alcohol-Related Traffic Crashes, by Year Source: FARS

National Center for Statistics & Analysis People Saving People 29 th Annual Traffic Records Forum, Denver, CO Alcohol Reporting and Estimation in FARS NHTSA 2002 Data Show …  Both the Number of Persons Killed in Motor Vehicle Traffic Crashes and the Number of Alcohol Related Fatalities in 2002 remained essentially unchanged from 2001

National Center for Statistics & Analysis People Saving People 29 th Annual Traffic Records Forum, Denver, CO Alcohol Reporting and Estimation in FARS NHTSA 2001 Data Show …  Alcohol Fatality Rates also appear to have stabilized...  Although still above agency goals.

National Center for Statistics & Analysis People Saving People 29 th Annual Traffic Records Forum, Denver, CO Alcohol Reporting and Estimation in FARS 15 New DOT Performance Measure for Alcohol Related Fatalities, by Year Source: FARS Alcohol Related Fatalities per 100 M VMT, by Year 0.53

National Center for Statistics & Analysis People Saving People 29 th Annual Traffic Records Forum, Denver, CO Alcohol Reporting and Estimation in FARS While there is little change in these estimates from 2000 to 2001, there is a major change in the way these numbers were obtained… NHTSA is Using a Different Method of Imputing Missing BAC Values. But, …

National Center for Statistics & Analysis People Saving People 29 th Annual Traffic Records Forum, Denver, CO Alcohol Reporting and Estimation in FARS This Method will allow NHTSA, and other Users of our data to do much more with the Alcohol Data, Like...