Approximately 20% of US child passenger deaths from 1982 through 2010 involved an alcohol-impaired driver, typically the child’s own driver.1,2 The higher the blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of the child’s driver, the less likely the child passenger who died was restrained in the crash.1,3 Although most states have enacted legislation to prevent children from riding with drinking drivers, these laws have not been shown to be effective in protecting children.4 The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported that traffic fatalities increased during the pandemic,5 and that about 1 in 5 child passenger deaths in 2020 involve an alcohol-impaired driver.6 Through an analysis of national crash data for the past decade, we provide an update on this topic.
We analyzed the 2011–2019 Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) Final Files and the 2020 Annual Report Files (ARF) from the National Highway Traffic Safety...
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