Another irrelevant post from Count "Interesting" Basie. I spotted an interesting piece of research over the holidays. It was by a team attached to a hospital in Dublin. They were looking at the role alcohol plays in various forms of fatalities: from suicide, to got-out-of-hand assaults, to road deaths. The road death sample in the study was 1,778 cases, from 01/01/2000 to 31/12/2009. That would represent almost exactly half of the road fatalities in the Republic of Ireland in that time. Unfortunately there are no figures quoted for cyclists or motorcyclists - if things stay this quiet, I might delve deeper later on. What percentages of drivers, passengers and pedestrians do you reckon were shown by the autopsy to have consumed alcohol shorthly before their demise? Dead drivers with alcohol in their system accounted for 33% of those killed at the wheel. The percentage for passengers was fourteen. Pedestrians? A simpy staggering - presumably literally staggering in the case of many of the ex-pedestrians involved - fifty-nine percent. Of course, none of the pissed ex-pedestrians would have dreamed of getting into their cars and driving home, had they had a car to hand... any more than any pedestrians wrapped-up in their i-pods as they step off the kerb without looking would dream of sending a text while at the wheel of their moving car. No jokes about the Irish and booze, please.