Study finds 1,400 annual alcohol deaths at colleges

WASHINGTON -- A study showing 1,400 college students are killed each year in alcohol-related accidents should change the views of people who see drinking on campus as little more than a rite of passage, researchers and university officials said Tuesday.

The federally appointed task force that issued the report plans to distribute the study to college presidents, along with findings about which anti-drinking strategies work and which don't.

General campaigns warning of the dangers of alcohol have not been effective, researchers said. They said it is better to teach students to resist peer pressure, show them how alcohol may interfere with academic goals and strictly enforce minimum age laws.

Task force members stressed a need for colleges and communities to work together to fight what they called the "culture of drinking" at U.S. colleges.

"All you have to do is look at a couple of cable television channels who cover spring break where endless groups of drunken students get up and say 'I'm having the greatest time here' and then you recognize on the basis of these statistics what the fallout of the great time is," said the Rev. Edward A. Malloy, president of the University of Notre Dame and the task force co-chairman.

Half a million injuries

The study by the Task Force on College Drinking estimated that drinking by college students contributes to 500,000 injuries and 70,000 cases of sexual assault or date rape. Also, 400,000 students between 18 and 24 years old reported having had unprotected sex as a result of drinking.

Motor vehicle fatalities were the most common form of alcohol-related deaths. The statistics included college students killed in car accidents if the students had alcohol in their blood, even if the level was below the legal limit.

Students who died in other alcohol-related accidents, such as falls and drownings, were included. Those who died as a result of homicides or suicides were not.

The task force of researchers, college presidents and students was convened in 1998 by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, part of the National Institutes of Health.

Task force members said the study was the most detailed look ever at the consequences of college student drinking. Researchers integrated various databases and survey results to reach their findings.

Chief researcher Ralph Hingson of the Boston University School of Public Health said he believes the estimates are more likely to be conservative.