Most people know how unsafe drinking and driving can be, but how about drinking and walking?
Thomas Esposito of the Loyola University has witnessed the tragic aftermath of drunken walking in his own family as several years ago; his cousin who opted to walk instead of driving home from a party was killed on the roadside.In 2005, the journal Injury Prevention reported that New Year's Day is more deadly for pedestrians than any other day of the year. From 1986 to 2002, 410 pedestrians were killed on New Year's Day. Fifty-eight percent of those killed had high blood alcohol concentrations.
During the period from July 2009 to June 2010, 105 people were treated at Loyola after being struck by cars. Fifty-five of those patients had their blood alcohol levels checked.
Of those, 16 (29 percent) were found to have some level of alcohol in their system. Thirteen (24 percent) had blood alcohol concentrations at or above 0.08 percent, the legal definition for impaired driving in Illinois.
"If they had been driving and were stopped by police, they would have been arrested for driving under the influence," said Esposito.
Esposito added that those statistics don't take into account the people who suffer injuries in their homes from unintentional causes and violence after drinking.
"It's not just walking outside. We often see people who have been drinking that have fallen down the stairs or tripped at home and injured themselves. Others have unwisely chosen to 'get into it' with guns, knives, bottles and fists," said Esposito.
Source:MedIndia
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