Drinking Adult Drivers Faulted in Child Deaths
Most children 14 and under killed in alcohol-related crashes are passengers in automobiles driven by drivers who have been drinking, according to a study published today in the Journal of the American Medical Assn.
And more than two-thirds of these drinking drivers were not teenagers but old enough to be the parents or adult caregivers of the children who died in their cars, according to researchers at the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who conducted the study.
The findings, culled from a decade of national crash statistics, contradict a widely held perception that kids are usually killed by drunken drivers who crash into them.
The study’s authors said that their research points to a need for greater awareness on the part of parents and stronger state laws aimed at drivers who drink and get behind the wheel with children in their cars.
“These findings require us to think about new [strategies] to prevent these deaths,” said Dr. Kyran Quinlan, a pediatrician and the lead researcher on the study. “We are suggesting that states [should] have lower blood alcohol limits for drivers transporting children and that families adopt a policy of zero tolerance for drinking and driving with children.”
In another key finding, the study showed that children riding with a driver who had been drinking were less likely to be buckled in. The greater the amount of alcohol consumed by the driver, the lower the chance that a young passenger would be properly strapped in.
Indeed, drivers who drink appeared to be more likely to think of their own survival than a child’s. According to Quinlan, 25% of the drinking drivers were buckled up, compared with 18% of the children who died in their cars.
The findings came as a surprise to Mothers Against Drunk Driving, a leading force behind stronger laws that have contributed to a drop in alcohol-related traffic deaths.
“I have heard mothers call us about alcoholic fathers who they felt were endangering the children, but I had no idea that over 60% of the deaths were the result of children riding with a drinking driver,” said Millie Webb, MADD’s national president.
“To lose a child to a drinking driver is a horrific thing,” she added. “To think that you contributed to it--how could anybody live with that?”
Motor vehicle accidents are the leading cause of death for children over the age of 1, surpassing illness and violence. From 1985 to 1996, the study found, 5,555 children ages 14 and under were killed in alcohol-related crashes.
Of these children, 64% were in a car driven by drinking drivers. And 67% of these drinking drivers were old enough to be the parents or caregivers of the children who died. The data did not include information about the relationships between the children who died and the adult drivers.
According to Quinlan, the typical drinking driver was a man from the age of 25 to 34. Nearly two-thirds were legally drunk, though all had been drinking.
Some of the study’s findings are echoed in accident reports maintained by the California Highway Patrol.
Each year, the CHP collects detailed information on every child 3 and younger who is killed in a vehicle crash in the state. For 1999, preliminary numbers show that eight children in this age group died in alcohol-related crashes and seven were riding with drunken drivers.
In one crash, near Sacramento in April, two girls and a boy were being driven by their uncle, who had a blood-alcohol level more than twice the legal limit. He lost control of his vehicle and it struck a tree. A 2-year-old nephew and a 10-year-old niece, sharing a single adult seat belt, were killed. (Safety experts say children should never share an adult belt.)
In another crash, near Fresno in September, a woman had just left her birthday party with her 3-year-old son. They were riding with a friend of the mother, a man who drank 12 glasses of beer in the course of a little more than an hour. His car drifted off the road, he over-corrected and the vehicle hit a tree. All three perished.
Quinlan said his research suggests that most parents who let their children ride with a drinking driver are aware that the person has an alcohol problem. To get at this point, the study compared drinking and nondrinking drivers in fatal crashes involving children. It found that the drinking drivers were seven times as likely to have been previously convicted of drunken driving. Quinlan said he believes that such information likely would have been known by relatives and close friends.
“This may be a terrible family secret that a parent is keeping quiet,” said Quinlan. “But they have a responsibility to these children. Putting a child in a car driven by a drunk driver is child endangerment.”
Recognizing that, 27 states have stiffer penalties for drunken drivers carrying a child in their vehicles. In California, drunken drivers with a passenger younger than 14 face a mandatory 48 hours in jail for first offenses, in addition to drunken driving sentences. Child endangerment charges can also be filed.
In addition, California, 17 other states and Washington, D.C., have lowered the threshold for drunken driving to a blood-alcohol level of 0.08, while most states still set it at 0.10 grams per deciliter of blood.
Death rates nationally for children riding with drinking drivers dropped from 1985 to 1990, but there has been little improvement since that time. That, said Quinlan, argues for stronger laws.
“Commercial truck drivers can’t have a blood-alcohol level greater than 0.02,” said Quinlan. “They are being held to a stricter standard and they’re transporting cargo.”
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Times staff writer Richard Simon contributed to this story.
