§ Lord Strathcarronasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether drunken pedestrians are included in the drink driving accident statistics. [HL46]
266WA
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions (Baroness Hayman)Drunken pedestrians are not normally included in the drink driving accident statistics. They would only feature if the accident in which they were involved was one in which one or more of the drivers or riders of motor vehicles involved refused to give a breath test specimen or failed either:
- (i) a breath test by registering over 35 microgrammes of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath, or
- (ii) a blood test by registering more than 80 milligrammes of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood.
Some information about the blood alcohol levels of pedestrians killed in road accidents is however available from data supplied to the department of coroners in England and Wales and procurators fiscal in Scotland. The following table shows the percentage of pedestrian fatalities above given blood alcohol levels for a sample of 353 of the 897 adult pedestrians who died in road accidents in 1995. It is not known whether there is any bias in the selection of this sample.
Blood alcohol levels of fatalities aged 16 and over Blood alcohol level (mg/100m1) Percentage of pedestrian fatalities over this level 9 40 50 33 80 31 100 30 150 25 200 16