
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, September 24, 1993                   TAG: 9309240093
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: ATLANTA                                LENGTH: Medium

DESIGNATED WALKER THE ANSWER?

You've heard plenty about the dangers of drinking and driving. Now federal health officials are finding that drinking and walking is a deadlier combination than they had realized.

Fewer drunken drivers are running over pedestrians, but more than a third of the pedestrians killed by cars last year were drunk themselves, according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration figures reported Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control.

The 5,546 pedestrians killed by cars last year made up 14 percent of all vehicle-related fatalities. About 96,000 other pedestrians were injured.

There is no legal level of intoxication for pedestrians. But 36 percent of the 4,770 pedestrians over age 14 who were killed last year had blood-alcohol levels of 0.10, enough to be cited for drunken driving. Seven percent had consumed smaller amounts of alcohol.

Of the 2,059 who had consumed any alcohol, more than half had blood-alcohol levels greater than 0.20.

"This is a bigger problem than we had thought previously," said Jim Hedlund of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. "Most of our programs are aimed at drivers. We have not really addressed the drinking-and-walking issue."

Scientists know little about who is most at risk of walking drunk into traffic, and about how to prevent these deaths, Hedlund said. So his agency is starting a $370,000 study in Baltimore to find out exactly what happens to drunken pedestrians struck by cars there.

The agency will add information about drunken pedestrians to the training bartenders and waiters now undergo to learn how to handle patrons at risk of driving drunk.

Keywords:
FATALITY

by CNB