WALT BECKMAN
Directorate of Assessments and Prevention, Ground Division
U.S. Army Combat Readiness Center
Fort Rucker, Alabama

Alcohol, speed and failure to wear a seat belt: Alone or in concert, any one of these three contributing or causal factors can lead to a fatal mishap. Nationally, as in the Army, there are laws, rules and regulations drivers must follow. It’s against the law to drink and drive, it’s against an either primary or secondary law to operate a vehicle unrestrained, and it’s against the law to exceed a posted speed limit. Still, each year thousands die in crashes as a result of one or more of these factors.

If we look at the numbers for 2016, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s last complete year of data, these fatalities include people in all age groups from infants to those 75 and older. Of the 37,461 fatalities in 2016, 27 percent (10,111) involved speeding. More than one-third (37 percent) of all speeding drivers involved in fatal crashes were alcohol-impaired, and half (50 percent) of speeding passenger vehicle drivers were unrestrained at the time of the crash. It’s interesting to note that 86 percent of speeding-related fatalities occurred on non-interstate roadways. The majority of fatal crashes involving alcohol, speed and failure to wear a restraint occur between midnight and 5:59 a.m. over the weekend period between 6 p.m. Friday and 5:59 a.m. Monday.

If we look at fatal accidents in the Army for fiscal 2018 that involved alcohol, speed and failure to wear a seat belt — what we commonly refer to as “indiscipline” on the part of the driver or passenger — the numbers are similar to what we see across the nation. Of the 37 fatal mishaps involving a four-wheel private motor vehicle, or PMV-4, 12 involved some form of indiscipline: 42 percent involved excessive speed, 33 percent involved an unrestrained driver or passenger, and 25 percent involved alcohol. All but two of the 12 indiscipline-related mishaps occurred after 2300 hours.

There is a lot of discussion on contributing and causal factors. Does the mere fact that a driver involved in a mishap was drinking result in a fatality? Does exceeding the speed limit or failing to wear a seat belt result in a fatality? Often there is more than one of these causal factors involved in mishaps that result in a fatality. Let’s look at them individually.

• Cognitively, alcohol is cited as impairing the information processing needed to inhibit response impulses — the abilities to foresee negative consequences of the response, to recall inhibiting standards and so on. In layman’s terms, it impairs our ability to make good decisions, like wearing a seat belt or obeying the posted speed limit. It also slows down our response time while operating a vehicle and, therefore, our ability to react to common driving situations like recovering from running off the edge of the road or failing to stop at the sign or traffic light. Alcohol can lead to a fatal mishap, but more often it works in concert with one of the other two causal factors.


• Speeding contributes to loss of vehicle control, reduces the effectiveness of occupant protection such as air bags and seat belts, increases stopping distances and increases crash severity. Crash severity and reduced effectiveness of occupant restraints often lead to a fatal outcome in most mishaps involving speed. The human body can only withstand so much trauma before it results in death. The best-designed vehicle on the road today provides crash protection currently up to 70 kph for car occupants wearing seat belts in frontal impacts and 50 kph in side impacts. Again, speed can be either the cause or contribute to a fatal mishap, but it is often coupled to one of the other causal factors.


• Can wearing a seat belt still result in a fatal mishap? We are often asked this question and the answer is yes — if you consider other causal factors such as speed. Remember, speed reduces the effectiveness of occupant restraints and often increases the severity of the crash. If what is commonly referred to as “survival space” inside your vehicle is compromised, it increases the chance of fatal results. Unrestrained occupants can also be thrown from the vehicle as it rolls — again, severity of crash — and end up pinned under or struck by it. According to NHTSA, air bags and seat belts combined were cited as saving more than 17,000 lives in 2016. By regulation, as a driver or senior occupant in the vehicle, it is your responsibility to ensure the occupants are wearing the proper restraints, obeying the posted speed limits and are not driving if they’ve been drinking.

Although these three causal or contributing factors can individually lead to a fatal mishap, they are often combined and end with tragic results. Eliminating one or more of them as you operate your vehicle may not work to reduce your chances of a fatal mishap. The bottom line is all three are either against the law or a violation of regulation, so it’s best to avoid them altogether.


FYI
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, in an early prediction of 2017, 37,150 people died in motor vehicle crashes — a slight decrease of about 0.8 percent from the 37,641 fatalities in 2016. This represents the first decline in fatalities since the back-to-back significant increases in 2015 and 2016.