NTL Record

Title A Study of the Relationship Between the Risk of Fatality and Blood Alcohol Concentration of Recreational Boat Operators
Record ID 33423
Personal Name
Creator
Mengert, Peter; Disario, Robert; Sussman, E. Donald
Source 71p. in various pagings
Corporate Creator John A. Volpe National Transportation Systems Center (U.S.)
Corporate
Contributor
United States. Coast Guard. Office of Navigation Safety and Waterway Services; United States. Coast Guard. Office of Engineering, Logistics, & Development
Publisher United States. Coast Guard
Publication Date 19920500
Language English
Abstract A previous study reported that in a data set of recreational boating fatalities 30% of the victims had blood alcohol concentrations above .10% by volume. These data alone did not permit estimation of increased risk of fatality due to intoxication because the prevalence of intoxication among recreational boat operators was unknown. The current study involved interviewing and breath testing recreational boat operators at several boat ramps and marinas in California in order to obtain the "exposure" data needed to estimate the increased risk of fatality associated with intoxication. A large percentage of those people who were approached willingly agreed to the interview and to the breath test. Combining the data from this exposure sample and the fatality data from the previous study enabled computation of a relative risk estimate. The best estimate of relative risk resulting from this research is 10.65, that is, boat operators with a blood alcohol concentration above .10% are estimated to be 10.65 times as likely to be killed in a boating accident than boat operators with zero blood alcohol concentration. A 95% lower confidence bound on this estimate is 4.74. Several possible sources of bias and their effects on the relative risk estimate are considered.
Rosap ID dot:38762
Rosap URL https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/38762
TRT Terms Alcohol use; Risk assessment; Blood alcohol levels; Blood analysis; Fatalities; Water transportation crashes; Boating; Recreation
General Subjects Boating; Alcohol; Risk; Exposure; Marine Transportation; Safety and Human Factors
Geographical
Coverage
United States
TRIS Online
Accession No
00584327
Contract Number CG2 7 4 / B2 0 6 7
Report Number DOT-VNTSC-CG-92-1; CG-D-09-92
Availability Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, Technical Reference Center
Resource type Tech Report
URL https://ntlrepository.blob.core.windows.net/lib/33000/33400/33423/33423.pdf
Format PDF
Database NTL Digital Repository