Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Squeal with horror
The Chron joins in on a pretty funny bit of spin:
Alcohol-Related Driving Deaths Up
Drunken driving fatalities increased in 22 states in 2006 and fell in 28 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, federal transportation officials said Monday.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration released data showing there were 13,470 deaths in 2006 involving drivers and motorcycle operators with blood alcohol levels of .08 or higher, which is the legal limit for adults throughout the country. The number was down slightly from 2005, when 13,582 people died in crashes involving legally drunk drivers. Um... what? How does that count as "up"? This is even worse than the USA Today article, which at least notes that the deaths are only up in 22 states (yes, that's less than half, and the overall rate is a tiny bit down, so it seems like an odd fact to shout from the headline, but at least it's accurate), which is getting pretty solidly slammed.
But okay, here's their goal:
The overall number of deaths involving drivers and motorcycle operators with any amount of alcohol in their blood was 17,602 last year. That was up from 17,590 in 2005, according to spokeswoman Heather Ann Hopkins. Oh, so I guess it is a teensy bit up. (By 12 out of 17,590... an increase of... uh... 0.07%? I don't know if we're seeing a huge headline-demanding trend here)
How exactly "some guy had alcohol in his blood" leads to "alcohol-related" remains an open question.
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