Abstract
People mixing driving motor vehicles with consuming alcohol increases deaths and injuries on the roads, as was established irrefutably in the mid-1960s. This commentary discusses how society across Europe has responded since then to this burden by managing drink driving in the interests of road safety. The principal response has been to set, communicate and enforce limits on the level of alcohol in the blood above which it is illegal to drive and to deal in various ways with drivers found to be exceeding the limits. Achieving reduction in drink-related road deaths has benefitted public health, though the aim to change behaviour of drinking drivers has been a challenge to the profession. Other achievements have included changes in public attitude to drink driving, and reduction in reoffending by convicted offenders through rehabilitation courses and use of the alcohol interlock, which prevents starting of a vehicle by a driver who has drunk too much. There is scope for improved recording of road deaths identified as drink-related, greater understanding of effectiveness in enforcement of the legal limit and improved availability of the alcohol interlock. Relevance of experience with drink driving to management of other drug driving and prospects for building on the achievements so far are discussed.
Highlights
Across Europe, about 50 people each year per million population are killed in road traffic and about five times as many are seriously injured [1], consumption of alcohol is high by global standards [2], and a widely quoted estimate [3] is that about a quarter of the road deaths are related to drink driving
When we address the issues of drink driving and other kinds of drug driving our concern about driver behaviour extends backwards in time for some hours, and in the case of heavy drinking many hours, before the driver has taken to the road
An estimate quoted widely in Europe is that up to 25% of road deaths in the related, which stems from an extensive study for the European Commission in 2014 of drink driving in European Union are so related, which stems from an extensive study for the European Commission in 2014 of drink driving in Europe which concluded that 20 to 28 % of all road deaths in the European
Summary
Across Europe, about 50 people each year per million population are killed in road traffic and about five times as many are seriously injured [1], consumption of alcohol is high by global standards [2], and a widely quoted estimate [3] is that about a quarter of the road deaths are related to drink driving. Public Health 2020, 17, 9521; doi:10.3390/ijerph17249521 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph This commentary is based substantially on the author’s involvement in addressing this challenge, beginning with his role in interpreting the game-changing data from the USA in 1964–1965 [5] and continuing until his sharing in pan-European work on drink driving in this century through the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC). The commentary begins by demarcating the specific challenge of drink driving within the much wider challenge of alcohol in society and goes on to cite leading examples of work to quantify the effects of alcohol on drivers’ risk of involvement in collisions and on the general level of risk to road users It describes regulation of drink driving by setting a legal limit to the level of alcohol in the blood while driving: the setting of the limit, its communication to those required to comply with it and its enforcement in order to deter and detect driving while over the limit. Concluding sections discuss progress that has been made in addressing the challenge of drink driving, and steps in research and practice that offer the prospect of further progress
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