Drinking and Driving

[prairiechickin]

A few years ago I was doing some research on highway development in New Brunswick after 1945. I read all of the Department of Highways Annual Reports from 1945 to 1970. From '45 until the early '60s the Department provided a list of the causes of traffic accidents for the year. Topping the list annually were driver carelessness and road conditions which accounted for well over half the accidents every year. After that the list was broken up into a couple of dozen other categories ranging from collisions with wildlife to mechanical failure. Way at the bottom of the list every year was drunk driving, which never accounted for any more than 3% of accidents in any year.

So what are we to glean from these lists? Was there no booze in New Brunswick after World War Two? Were New Brunswickers so law abiding that they simply didn't drive much when they were drinking? Or were they just so good at drinking and driving that they rarely got into accidents? Or maybe those stats are just a reflection of the real danger involved in drinking and driving, that is, its not nearly as dangerous as MADD would have us believe. Seems to me that drinking and driving was not considered really dangerous until the early 1970s when a reliable roadside breathalizer became available to law enforcement. After that drunk drivers were no longer funny, they were downright dangerous and the hunt was on. Now they are just behind terrorists and pedophiles as the scourge of modern Canada. Maybe we should do some research into How New Brunswick managed to keep the drunks from crashing into each other way back when.

[sharkman]

What I wonder from those lists is just how did they determine whether a driver was drunk way back then? In other words, how trustworthy are those stats? A driver could have been drunk and was careless and the official report would have named careless driving as the cause.

[prairiechickin]

I don't know but that's a good question. I'm guessing they used the same walk-the-line, touch-your-nose type of techniques they still use today. But you're right, I don't think we can read too much into these stats, but I did find it strange that drunk driving seemed such an insignificant category every year.

[msj]

Given the discussion in this thread I found the following two stories interesting (but not very detailed):

B.C.’s texting law saves lives

and

B.C. driving law saves 45 lives

68 people died in alcohol related deaths rather than the typical 113. If that holds up then the changes in the law made in 2010 will have to be considered a success (but the bars/restaurants will still hate the law).