4. Fatally Injured Passengers/Motorcycle Riders

This section will analyze the characteristics of passengers/motorcycle riders killed in alcohol-related crashes in 2003. Alcohol test results for passengers are not reported to FARS in most of the cases, and hence, the alcohol involvement of the passengers cannot be determined.

Table 26 depicts passengers/motorcycle riders killed in alcohol-related crashes in 2003. About 80 percent of the fatalities occurred to passengers who were riding with a driver with alcohol.

Table 26: Passengers/Motorcycle Riders Killed in Alcohol-Related Crashes, 2003

Role	Number	Percent
Passengers Riding w/ Driver with Alcohol	2,896	79.2%
Motorcycle Rider w/ Operator with Alcohol	110	3.0%
Passengers w/ Driver with No Alcohol	583	16.0%
Motorcycle Rider w/ Operator with No Alcohol	14	0.4%
Others	52	1.4%
Total	3,655	100%
Source: NCSA FARS 2003 Annual Report File Note: Numbers and percentages may not add to total due to independent rounding.

Of particular interest are the characteristics of the 2,896 passengers who were fatally injured and were riding with a driver who had alcohol. Table 27 depicts the restraint use among passengers killed in alcohol-related crashes by the alcohol involvement of the driver with whom they were riding.

Table 27: Passengers Killed in Alcohol-Related Crashes by Their Restraint Use and Alcohol Involvement of the Driver They Were Riding With, 2003

Alcohol Involvement of Driver	Unrestrained		Restrained		Total
	Number	Percent	Number	Percent	Number	Percent
Riding with Driver Who Had Alcohol	2,207	76%	689	24%	2,896	100%
Riding with Driver with No Alcohol	299	51%	284	49%	583	100%
Source: NCSA FARS 2003 ARF Note: Totals may not equal previously reported totals as occupants whose restraint use was coded as “Unknown” were prorated between the restraint used and unused categories. The prorated fatality counts have been rounded to the nearest integer.Note: Numbers and percentages may not add to total due to independent rounding.

The data in table 27 shows that among passengers killed in alcohol-related crashes, they are more likely to be unrestrained if they were riding with a driver who had alcohol as compared to when they were riding with a driver with no alcohol. About three-fourths of all passengers killed when they were riding with a driver who had alcohol were unrestrained. This compares to slightly more than half of unrestrained passengers killed riding with a driver with no alcohol.

4.1 Age of Passengers

This section will provide data on the age of the passengers killed in alcohol-related crashes and identify any correlations between the age of the driver they were riding with. Table 28 depicts the age of the passengers killed in alcohol-related crashes by the alcohol involvement of the driver they were riding with.

Table 28: Passengers Killed in Alcohol-Related Crashes by Their Ages and the Alcohol Involvement of the Driver They Were Riding With, 2003

Age-Group	Riding with Drivers Who Had Alcohol		Riding with Drivers Who Had No Alcohol
	Fatalities	Percent	Fatalities	Percent
Under 1	13	0.4%	13	2.3%
1-3	39	1.3%	18	3.1%
4-7	42	1.5%	30	5.2%
8-15	171	5.9%	68	11.7%
16-20	735	25.4%	78	13.3%
21-24	542	18.7%	59	10.0%
25-34	585	20.2%	69	11.8%
35-44	382	13.2%	54	9.3%
45-64	281	9.7%	104	17.9%
65+	93	3.2%	86	14.8%
Unknown	14	0.5%	4	0.6%
Total	2,896	100%	583	100%
Source: NCSA FARS 2003 Annual Report File Note: Numbers and percentages may not add to total due to independent rounding.

There were 735 passengers age 16-20 who were killed when they were riding with a driver who had alcohol. This was about a quarter of all passengers killed when they were riding with a driver who had alcohol. However, passengers who were killed in alcohol-related crashes but were riding with a driver with no alcohol tended to be older passengers, with 45- to 64-year-olds having the highest number (104) of passenger fatalities.

Table 29 depicts the age of the fatally injured passengers by the age of the driver with whom they were riding in cases where the driver had alcohol. As the highlighted diagonal cells in table 29 indicate, fatally injured passengers were most likely to be in vehicles driven by drivers of the same age range who had alcohol. As shown in table 29, 450 passengers age16 to 20 were killed when they were riding with a 16- to 20-year-old driver who had alcohol. This represents about two-thirds [450/711] of all fatalities in 16- to 20-year-olds when they were riding with a driver who had alcohol.

Table 29: Age of Driver by Age of Fatally Injured Passengers When They Were Traveling with a Driver Who Had Alcohol, 2003

Age of Driver	Age of Passenger (Italicized numbers are percentages)											Total
	< 1	1-3	4-7	8-15	16-20	21-24	25-34	35-44	45-64	65+	Unknown
8-15	1 14.6	1 I	0 -	10 48	7 32	0 -	0 -	1 6	0 -	0 -	0 -	22
16-20	3 0.4	5 0.8	1 0.1	72 10.1	450 63.4	106 14.9	42 6.0	20 2.8	10 1.3	2 0.2	2 0.3	711
21-24	4 0.5	7 1.0	5 0.7	24 3.3	180 24.8	268 36.8	176 24.1	41 5.6	19 2.6	3 0.4	3 0.4	728
25-34	2 0.3	16 2.4	21 3.2	26 3.9	58 8.6	133 19.7	252 37.3	99 14.7	55 8.2	8 1.2	5 0.7	675
35-44	3 0.8	8 1.9	11 2.8	27 6.6	23 5.7	20 4.8	76 18.7	150 37.1	71 17.6	16 3.8	1 0.3	404
45-64	0 0.0	1 0.4	3 1.3	9 3.3	11 3.9	8 2.8	30 10.9	66 24.3	109 39.9	34 12.5	2 0.8	273
65+	0 -	0 -	0 -	0 -	0 -	0 -	2 4.1	2 3.2	15 28.9	31 60.0	1 2.0	51
Unknown	0 -	0 -	0 -	3 9.6	5 16.8	9 26.4	7 22.7	4 13.0	3 7.8	1 1.6	1 1.6	32
Total	13	39	42	171	735	542	585	382	281	93	14	2,896
Source: NCSA FARS 2003 ARF Individual cell counts do not add up to total due to independent rounding. Percentages are calculated based on un-rounded estimates and will hence differ from those calculated based on displayed cell counts. Note: Numbers and percentages may not add to total due to independent rounding.