Booze and autos don't mix - car crashes account for half of drinking injurie

Figures in a new survey, by the Canadian Institute for Health Information, show that car crashes account for more than half of severe alcohol-related injuries in Canada and nearly one-third of those hurt are under the age of 25.

The survey also found young people to be most at risk of being seriously hurt as a result of drinking and driving on weekends and at night, and the month of June to be most dangerous month for that age group.

Margaret Keresteci, manager of clinical registries for CIHI, says that for young people, the beginning of the summer is a time for graduation celebrations and attending proms.

She says although this should be a time when youngsters mark their accomplishments, the data unfortunately indicates that this can also be a very dangerous time of year for them.

In the survey of eight of the provinces, it was seen that about 1,500 people in total entered hospital in Canada in 2002-2003 as a result of injuries connected to alcohol, and of those, about 52 per cent involved motor vehicle collisions.

That figure is up about 9 per cent over the three previous years.

Ranking second, at 21 per cent were falls, while assaults and homicides accounted for 18 per cent of the total.

From the time when CIHI first began gathering the data, total injuries requiring hospital care as a result of alcohol consumption were up 12 per cent from 2000-2001.

Of even more concern was that around 30 per cent of people seriously injured in drinking and driving related crashes in the most recent survey were under the age of 25.

Statistics Canada report that, 9 per cent of 16 and 17 year olds, 18 per cent of 18 and 19 year olds and 16 per cent of 20 to 24 year olds say that they have driven after drinking.

The highest proportion of Canadians admitted to specialized trauma hospitals as a result of alcohol-related injuries were young people between the ages of 10 and 24.

The study also suggested that drinking and driving injuries tended to be more severe than others.

The average Canadian hospital stay overall, totals seven days, but the average for people admitted as a result of alcohol-related injuries totalled 15 days.

Ms. Keresteci says that injuries of this level of severity are often life-threatening and are definitely life-altering, often with extended and sometimes incomplete, recoveries.

Between 2000 and 2003, 144 young people died in hospital after suffering alcohol-related injuries, accounting for about 16 per cent of all in-hospital deaths for that age group.