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A new federal study says that the Upper Midwest has the worst drunken driving record in the entire country. And Wisconsin is the worst of the worst.
The national average is 15 percent of adults 18 or older have admitted in surveys to driving under the influence.
In Wisconsin, 26 percent of people 18 and over admitted to researchers that they have driven while under the influence of alcohol.
While a survey question asking people to characterize their drinking and driving practices is a bit subjective, a difference that large between Wisconsin and national responses is cause for concern.
Meanwhile, a local group studying the relationship between injury and alcohol use has come up with disturbing statistics of its own.
The Community Coalition on Changing the Culture of Risky Drinking Behavior reported that of the 553 emergency room visits at La Crosse’s two hospitals from 2004 to 2006 due to traffic accidents, 35 were considered alcohol-related. That number represents 6 percent of all accidents in those years. The state average is 3 percent.
There were 14 alcohol-related deaths among 15- to 24-year-olds from 2003 to 2007. Of that number, six were motor vehicle crashes, four were drownings, two suicides, a fall and a pedestrian
death.
All of these numbers show that local officials are right to be actively working on ways to reduce alcohol abuse. And, for those who think all this concern is overblown, no one is talking about prohibition, banning drinking or anything else. We’re talking about the very high levels of drinking that lead to dangerous behavior.
In the much-publicized drownings of young college-age men in La Crosse during the past several years, all had blood alcohol levels of 0.20 percent or above.
That’s well above the legal blood alcohol limit for driving — 0.08 percent. Those are dangerous blood alcohol levels.
The local task force on changing risky drinking behavior involves the La Crosse Health Science Consortium, both medical institutions and the Injury Research Center at the Medical College of Wisconsin.
Their plan includes the collection of statistics on local alcohol-related injuries, the compilation of an “assets inventory” of local alcohol prevention, treatment and policy resources, and the development of evidence-based strategies to reduce alcohol-related injuries among young people.
The latest federal study about state drunken driving practices — along with the local injury statistics — ought to convince all of us about the need for action.
