Alcoolemia em vítimas fatais de acidente de trânsito no Alto Vale do Itajaí, Santa Catarina, Brasil Alcoolemy in people fatally injured in traffic crashes on Alto Vale do Itajaí, Santa Catarina, Brasil

The objective of the study was analyze data on alcohol found in patients suffering from fatal traffic accident referred to the legal center of necropsy of the “Rio do Sul/SC” between the years 2004 to 2006. We analyzed records of 248 patients who underwent blood alcohol test, where 94 patients (38%) had positive blood alcohol. Of these 93.6% were male. Looking at the age has been that 82% were between 17-49 years. The days of the week with a higher occurrence was Saturday and Sunday (59%). 65% of cases occurred between 18 pm and 2 o’clock. Along the months of the year there was a homogenous distribution with slight predominance in April with 12 and December with 13 cases. The “BR 470” was the place where most cases occurred with 31 deaths. Data were consistent with the literature.