Blood Alcohol Concentration in Texas: Improving Medical Examiner and County Performance
Author(s):
C.T. Fillips, A.B. Trueblood, T.D. Walden, M.E. Perez, R.C. Gilbert
Publication Date:
September 2019
Abstract:
Texas experienced 3,304 fatal crashes and 3,640 fatalities in 2018. Out of the fatal crashes 1,129 were DUI related, leading to 1,259 deaths (Texas Department of Transportation, 2019). Alcohol-related crashes and fatalities are a public concern that need to be targeted by sound traffic safety countermeasures and money allocation decisions that are driven by data. It is crucial that decision makers identify the extent of the alcohol-related driving problem to allocate enough resources to mitigate the problem of alcohol-related deaths that Texas face. BAC data pinpoints the scope of the problem. TxDOT, as the custodian agency for all of crash data, which contains BAC information, holds the important role of using BAC data to develop data-driven traffic safety strategies that combat alcohol related deaths on Texas roads.
TxDOT collects BAC toxicology data mostly from the CR-3 form that law enforcement agencies provide. TC 550.081 underlines that it is the duty of the medical examiners and the justices of the peace to report toxicology results for fatal crashes to TxDOT-CRS (see Appendix A for 550.081). The fact that because the main source of BAC toxicology data comes from different groups of stakeholders other than those who are statutorily mandated to report, a greater chance exists for data to be lost in this less than seamless reporting system.
The purpose of this technical memorandum is to detail the extent to which alcohol and drugs contribute to crashes and evaluate county performance in reporting BAC toxicology results through a crash analysis. This memo has the purpose of highlighting potential steps that improve the number of BAC toxicology tests reported and moves the state closer to achieving accurate and complete BAC toxicology data collection.
Electronic Link(s):
Document/Product
http://tti.tamu.edu/documents/TTI-2019-16.pdf
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