Miami students’ first weekend back on campus brings spike in alcohol-related emergency calls

Oxford hospital was so overwhelmed, some of the alcohol-related cases were taken to other hospitals, police reported.

Police and fire/EMS personnel were kept busy over the weekend dealing with alcohol-related reports, most involving Miami University students back in town for the start of classes this past Monday, a review of police reports shows.

Some of the alcohol-related cases had to be taken to other hospitals when McCullough-Hyde Memorial Hospital could not take anymore, according to police reports.

Oxford’s fire and EMS crews responded to 53 calls over the weekend, 20 of them alcohol or drug related incidents, records show.

MORE: Miami student dies from complications of alcohol consumption

Last school year, Miami University held a rare public forum on alcohol abuse in the wake of the death of freshman Erica Buschick from alcohol poisoning and higher numbers of intoxicated students transported to local medical centers.

School officials also enacted several changes, including tougher restrictions on “outdoor house parties,” punishing underage students more who possess hard liquor as compared to beer, and using existing noise and littering laws to help curb off-campus house parties where drinking occurs.

School officials also expanded the more than one dozen alcohol and drug abuse education and counseling programs available to students.

MORE: Surge in drinking hospitalizations reflects student reporting, Miami says

According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA), researchers estimate that each year about 1,825 college students between the ages of 18 and 24 die from alcohol-related unintentional injuries, including motor-vehicle crashes.

Officials at the NIAAA also report about 696,000 students annually — between the ages of 18 and 24 — are assaulted by another student who has been drinking, and that about 97,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 report experiencing alcohol-related sexual assault or date rape.

This article contains previous reporting by staff writer Michael D. Clark.

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