Citation

Turk RF, McBay AJ, Hudson P, Bullaboy MM. Proc. Int. Counc. Alcohol Drugs Traffic Safety Conf. 1974; 1974: 597-606.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1974, The author(s) and the Council, Publisher International Council on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This report presents the results of a three-year study of the involvement of drugs and carbon monoxide in automobile operators and pedestrians killed in six counties of North Carolina. It reveals that the major drug detected in operators and pedestrians fatally injured in automobile crashes was ethyl alcohol. Drugs other than alcohol most frequently encountered were the sedative hypnotics which were represented by the barbiturates; the analgesics, represented by propoxyphene, salicylates and phenacetin; the antiepileptic drug, diphenylhydantoin; the antiarrhythmic drug, quinidine and lastly, the antimalarial drug and also a common ingredient in tonic water and "street" heroin, quinine. Microscopic examination indicated that the livers of at least half of the drivers and pedestrians showed evidence that they had been chronic alcoholic. This indicates a gross over-representation of alcoholics among the driver crash victim and the pedestrian crash victim populations. /Author/