ABSTRACT
The association between alcohol and injury was recorded in the writings of ancient Egypt and was referred to in the Proverbs of the Old Testament. With the appearance of the private motor vehicle, alcohol assumed an unprecedented importance in serious and fatal injury. Motor vehicles had not been on the roads long before it was recognized that alcohol was a factor in their crashes. The Grand Rapids Study made two critical contributions to the traffic safety field and to the literature on alcohol and driving. The Grand Rapids Study generated what may be the most often presented graph in the literature on alcohol and driving, the Grand Rapids graph illustrating the relative risk of causing a crash as a function of blood alcohol concentration (BAC). Dr. Robert Borkenstein’s development of the Breathalyzer enabled a relatively inexpensive objective means of measuring BAC. Any discussion of alcohol and traffic safety should at least note the role of alcohol in pedestrian casualties.
