Citation

Trinca GW. J. Traffic Med. 1989; 17(1): 29-41.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1989, International Association for Accident and Traffic Medicine)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

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Abstract

While the drink driving fatality trend in Australia is moving in the right direction there is a need to target specific areas where adverse changes are occurring. This will be better achieved if a uniform package of alcohol misuse counter-measures can be developed nationally and directed at all categories of road user. Such an attack should be combined with progress designed to counter the excessive and damaging consumption of alcohol that continues to pervade all aspects of Australian society. The essential objective of the drink driving countermeasures package is to establish, as a societal practice, the separation of road user behaviour from drinking behaviour, motivated and reinforced by societal values. Success will not occur unless there is co-ordination of legislators, juriciary, police, educators, public health and transport authorities and those responsible for liquor use policies. Also, each program within the package needs to be evaluated so that additions, deletions and modifications can be made. Finally, when considering any single road safety issue, such as alcohol misuse, one must not lose sight of the full scenario of road safety and injury prevention. Otherwise thinking and subsequent action becomes unbalanced and there is the risk of being regarded as tunnel visioned, obsessional and not to be listened to seriously.

[This article presents statistics which highlight the relationship between alcohol and road trauma in Australia and describes legislation introduced to reduce the problem. Over half of the driver fatalities and almost half of every other kind of serious road casualty arise from crashes where at least one driver has a blood alcohol level (bal) over the legal limit of 0.05 g/100 ml. Victorian studies show that almost 50% of the adult pedestrians killed or injured had been drinking. The risk of a pedestrian becoming involved in an accident becomes significant at a bal between 0.08 and 0.12 g/ml. Action to reduce drunken driving depends largely on legislative initiatives. Countermeasures include a pe se limit of 0.05 g/100 ml in all but 2 Australian states. Compulsory alcohol testing of accident victims, random breath testing and heavy penalties. The measures vary from state to state, and there are still some states and territories resisting some or all of these measures. Statistics show that there has been a decrease in alcohol related accidents since 1977. Those states such as Victoria, with the most comprehensive countermeasures, and New South Wales and tasmania, with the highest rates of random breath testing have the lowest levels of such accidents. A package of strategies to tackle the drink driving problem nationwide is proposed, including more emphasis on education and advertising campaigns. (TRRL)]

ethanol impaired driving