The worldwide decline in drinking and driving - where are we now

Transcription

1 The worldwide decline in drinking and driving - where are we now Barry M. S w eed ler National Transportation Safety Boatd, Washington, DC USA INTRODUCTION This paper summarizes the nature of and trends in drinking and driving in numerous industrialized countries. It is based on papers prepared by experts from Canada, U nied Kingdom, The Netherlands, Germany, the United States, Australia and France for discussion at T'97, the 14th International Conferenceon Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety in Annecy, France in September of It is the thiid occasion where expats from around the world met to continue discussions began in 1993 in The Netherlands, and continued at T 95 in Adelaide, Australia in The 1993 meeting reported dramatic reductions in drinking and driving in all countries during the decade of the 1980 s. The declines included about 50% in the U.K., 28% in Canada and The Netherlands, 32% in Australia, 37% in Germany and 26% in the U.S. The reasons for the declines and changes that occurred were discussed at the 1993 and 1995 meetings and were published in a special report (Sweedler, 1994) and in the proceedings o f T '95 (Sweedler, 1995). Data are now available for the first half of the 1990s and genaally, the dramatic reductions that occurred in the 1980s have not continued. In most countries the declines revased in the early 1990s and began to increase, but toward the middle of the decade the increases have stabilized and even begun again to decrease. In some of the countries the reasons for the changes appear to be evident, but in o thas they are n o t The following summarizes the current situation in the above mentioned countries. Australia By 1994 all stales and territories had random breath testing (RBT) operations in place and had a limit for drivers of Although significant rediktions in Road Crash Fatalities per 100,000 population in Australia were achieved through the 1980s and early 1990s, the reduction appears to be bottoming out with a slight increase apparent in Although there has been a genaal decline in percentage of fatally injured drivers andridas in Australia that had a BAC level of 0.05 or above this percentage from the early 1980s, the mid 90s do not show the same genaal decline. While gains have been made in Australia as in o th a places in the world in the reduction o f the road toll and in particular the problem of drink driving, there is evidence that the limits o f achievable improvements with current countermeasures may be being reached. With all states in Australia

2 now having RBT and a 0.05 limit, new methods will be needed to further reduce the drink driving problem. Canada In Canada, the drinking and driving problem declined significantly during the 1980s and that decline was unique to that decade (Simpson et al., 1994). The scope and intensity of activity directed at the problem was unprecedented during that decade. Public and political concern engendered a wide range o f initiatives (Beirness et al., 1993). The m ost common condusion has been that the decline was attributed to the collective impact o f the diverse initiatives occurring at that tima However, the reasons for the decline remain speculative in the absence of direct supporting evidence and in the presence of other am ending explanations, such as economic facers, unemployment rates, shifting demographics and patterns of alcohol consumption (Simpson et al., 1994). It was found that the downward trend of the 1980s was interrupted rather abruptly and significantly beginning in 1990 and was replaced by an increase in the fatally injured drinking drivers. This increase was noted in 1991 and 1992 A modest decline occurred in 1993 (Simpson e tal., 1995). The decline continued in 1994 and in 1995; to a level comparable to the level reached in 1990, the lowest level reached. The percent o f fatally injured drivers began to decline in 1981 from between the 57% and 62% in the 1970s to a low o f 43 % in The percentage increased to 46% in 1991 and to 48 % in 1992 and then declined to 46% in 1993, to 43.6% in 1994 and to 43.5% in 1995 (Simpson et al, 1997). The authors note that the explanations for these trends remain open to speculation They state that precisely why the declines occurred during the 1980s remain as poorly understood as why this decline came to an end or was, at least, significantly altered in the early 1990s. F ranee The active program against drink-driving in France began in 1970 when a legal BAC limit and compulsory BAC testing was established. Random testing began in Legislative action steadily toughened the laws, police enforcement increased and sentencing became more severe. Driver license penalty points were added in 1992 and in 1995 the legal BAC was reduced to 0.5gd. Since the early 1970s per capita consumption of alcohol has steadily declined, drink-driving enforcement and convictions greatly increased and at the same time injury and fatal accidents steadily decreased. Actual data on alcohol related accidents were not available until 1993, when police accident reporting forms were improved. However, INRETS has estimated alcohol involvement in injury accidents from 1988 to They varied quite a bit, reaching a high in F ro m l9 9 1 to 1994 a downward trend has occurred (Biecheler and Jayet, 1997). Germany From 1975 to 1990 in the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) alcohol-related injuries and fatalities decreased continuously - fatalities were down 57%. The record was similar in the

3 German Democratic Republic (East Germany) alcohol-related fatalities down 25% from 1980 to By 1989 both East and W est had similar alcohol-related fatality experiences in relation to all fatalities in road accidents 18% in the West and 17% in the East These figures are very surprising considering the different legal BAClimits (80mg/100mlin the W est and 0 mg/ml in the East) and the different police enforcement strategies. Since 1993, 80m ^l00m l is the legal limit in all parts o f Germany. After unification, road accidents increased dramatically in the East This was especially true for alcohol-related accidents with injuries; where the increase was 72% from 1989 to This increase continued from 1990 to The figures for 1994 and 1995 show a stabilization and slight improvement However, the percent o f alcohol-related fatalities is higher in thee astthanin the W est-- 20% vs. 18%. In all o f Germany the share o f alcohol-related fatalities decreased from 20% to 18.2% from 1991 to Present efforts in Germany towards a more systematic integration o f driver improvement programs, especially for recidivists, into the existing legal and administrative framework seems to provide a more promising route to traffic safety in the medium term than do demands for radical changes in sanctions. However, they cannot be seen as a substitute for legal sanctions (Kroj andfriedel, 1997). The N etherlands Between 1992 and 1994 a reoiganizadon of the Dutch police occurred. The result was the establishment o f 25 regional police forces. Each police region was again divided into a number of districts and each district was made up of a number of local units. The main purpose of the reorganization was to enable police to combat crime in a more efficient way. But an associated effect, unfortunately, was that nearly all former traffic departments o f both state and municipal police were abolished. As a result, traffic enforcement in large parts of The Netherlands changed from a special activity into part of general police duties. The abolishment of the special traffic divisions led to a sharp drop in random breath testing, and consequently, to increased drinkdriving in 1993 and From 1995 on, however, police enforcement was brought to a higher level again, especially the use of small-scale random breath testing by surveillance teams. In 1996, administrative sanctions for severe offenders were toughened, including a compulsory education program at the offenders expense and license suspension on medical grounds. From 1995 on, drink-driving has been gradually decreasing again. In 1991, 3.9% of motorists in an Institute for Road Safety Research (SWOV) roadside survey had a BAC above 0.05%c, the lowest level reached from 15% found in In 1992 the percentage increased to 4.0%, to 4.2 % in 1993 and 4.9% in In 1995 the proportion dropped to 4.6% and to 4.4% in 1996 In order to combat drink-driving in The Netherlands, SWOV recommends a mixture o f countermeasures, consisting of additional legal regulations, education and information campaigns and intensified police enforcement; aimed particularly at young drivers and at days and times o f the day with relatively high alcohol consumption. Server training is also recommended (Mathijssen, 1997)

4 U nited K ingdom The trend line for the percentage of fatally-injured drivers with BACs above the legal limit of.08g/dl strongly suggests that the reduction achieved during the 1980s finally ceased in the early 1990s and has been replaced by an increasing trend. This percentage was about 34% in 1982, declined to about 17.5% in 1992, then increased to about 21% in 1993 and about 22.5% in It stayed the same in 1995 (DOT, 1996). Trends in self-reported drinking habits have been generally downward since The mean annual change has been greater during the period than during thep erb d The observed trends in drink driving, however, suggest that much of the reduction occurred during the early 1980s, particularly among heavier drinkers. Concerning public attitudes, it is clear that the major changes occurred during the 1980s. The annual rate of change since 1990 has been much slower and in one case moved in the opposite direction. The trends in fatal and serbus casualties were mirrored by broadly similar changes in attitude and self-reported drink driving behavior. Why have these changes occurred? One possibility is that there have been no major drink driving initiates in Britain since the introduction of evidential breath testing in This may have led to a perception that drink driving, as a social problem, has gone away, leading to a level o f complacency among drivers. Way s must be found to alter the balance of attention if further progress in reducing drink driving in Britain is to be achieved (Clayton, 1997). United States Both the number of alcohol-related fatalities and their proportion o f all traffic fatalities had been declining steadily for more than a decade. In 1995 this trend was interrupted when the number of alcohol related fatalities increased and the proportion remained stable at 41 percent. There was no change in Four key contributors to thedownward trend were identified: raising the drinking age to 21, more vigorous and efficient enforcement efforts, adoption o f effective legislation, and dramatic changes in public awareness and conoem. In recent years, progress in some of these areas has stalled: enforcement has declined; the pace of legislative actton has slowed; and public concern has shifted to other issues. Progress in preventing alcohol-related crashes among drivers under 21 has continued, in part because of strong legislative action. Increased binge drinking among young people and projected increases in the population 15 to 20 years of age make renewed efforts with this group important. Renewed vigor in the application o f proven strategies of the past and implementation of promising new strategies are called for to continue progress and prevent backsliding (Stewart etal., 1997). D ISC U SSIO N Because of so many variables in the legal and social aspects of the countries discussed above, it is difficult to compare their experiences in dealing with the drinking driving problem from a common baseline. With that in mind, what has occurred in these countries over the past 15 years does show

5 some similar trends. There may also be some similarities in the reasons for the trends. In general, all countries experienced a dramatic and steady decline in drinking and driving in the 1980s. Early in the 1990s mostcountries began to show a slowing in progress or even experienced an increase in the problem. In most countries, the decline was accompanied by (or possibly the result of) a decrease in alcohol consumption, an increase in the number of and severity o f legal controls, an increase in enforcement and greater public awareness of the problem. The slowing in progress or the reversal seen* to be accompanied, in most countries, by a reduction in enforcement, less political attention being paid to the problem and a perception that perhaps the problem has been solved. To continue making progress each country will have to carefully examine what worked in the 1980s, and reinvigorate those programs. In addition, innovative ideas must also be developed and implemented. By sharing our experiences and learning from each other we are more likely to achieve our common goal in a more timely manner. R E FE R E N C E S Biecheler, M B., and Jayet, M.C., Changes in Drink-Driving in France: A Challenge for Evaluation. Paper prepared for presentation at T=97, the 14th International Conference on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety, Annecy, France, September, Biemess, D. J., Simpson, H. M, and Mayhew, D.R. Assessment of the Impact o f the 1985 Amendments to the Drinking and Driving Section o f the Criminal Code o f Canada. Justice Canada, Ottawa, Clayton, A., The End of the Decline in Drink Driving in Britain. Paper prepared for presentation at T=97, the 14th International Conference on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety, Annecy, France, September, Department of Transport, 1996l Road Accidents Great Britain London, HMSO. Kroj, G. andfriedel, B. Alcohol-Related Road Accidents in the Federal Republic of Germany- Status to Paper prepared for presentation at T=97, the 14th International Conference on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety, Annecy, France, September, McLean, A. J. and Kloeden, C. N., Australian Countermeasures Revisited - Is Progress Continuing? Presentation made at the 76th Annual Meeting o f the U.S. Transportation Research Boaid, Washington, DC, USA, January, Mathijssen, M.P.M. Dutch Drink-Driving Decreases After New Policy. Paper prepared for presentation at T=97, the 14th International Conference on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety,

6 Annecy, France, SepEmber, Simpson, H.M., Mayhew, D. R., andbeimess, D.J. The Decline in Drinking-Driving Fatalities in Canada: Progress Re-emerges? Paper prepared for presentation at T=97, the 14th International Conferenceon Alcohol, Drugs andtraffic Safety, Annecy, France, SepEmber, Simpson, H.M., Beimess, D.J and Mayhew, D.R. Decline in Drinking and Driving Crashes, Fatalities and Injuries in Canada. In Sweedler, B.M. (Ed). The Nature of and Reasons for the Worldwide Decline in Drinking and Driving. Transportation Research Board Circular No. 422, Washington, DC, April Stewart, K., Fell, J., and Voas, R.B. Trends in Impaired Driving Crashes in theu nied StaEs: An Update. Paper prepared for presentation at T=97, the 14th International Conference on Alcohol, Drugs andtraffic Safety, Annecy, France, SepEmber, Sweedler, B.M. (Ed). The Nature of and Reasons for the Worldwide Decline in Drinking and Driving. Transportation Research Board Circular No. 422, Washington, DC, April 1994 Sweedler, B.M. The Worldwide Decline in Drinking and Driving. In C.N. Kloeden and A.J. McLean (Eds) Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety - T'95, Adelaide, Australia, NHMRC Road Accident Research Unit, University of Adelaide, Vol. 1,