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Abstract
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OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to explore the effects of the new traffic safety law on pedestrian mortality, by exploring hazardous behavior of pedestrians in terms of alcohol use and blood alcohol concentration (BAC).
METHODS: A retrospective autopsy study was performed, covering a seven-year period (from 2006 to 2012), including cases of fatally injured pedestrians who died at the scene of the incident. Their blood samples obtained from the femoral vein during the autopsy, were analyzed for BAC. The entire sample was divided into two groups. The first included cases from 2006 to 2009 - at which time the old traffic safety law was in force; and the second included the cases from 2010 to 2012, under the new traffic safety law.
RESULTS: A total of 247 cases were examined, covering a seven-year period. The average age was 57.5 ± 19.7 years, median age was 61.0 years, with a significant male predominance of 147 men to 100 women. This predominance also applied to alcohol use (54 vs. 13). The results show a significant decrease in the total annual number of fatally injured pedestrians, starting from 2009, compared to previous years, reaching a low in 2010, one year after implementation of the new traffic safety law. In contrast, the proportion of alcohol intoxicated pedestrians showed no significant difference in the years preceding and following the new traffic safety law, nor did the annual distribution of BAC or mean BAC before and after application of the new law.
CONCLUSION: The presented study indicates that the new traffic safety law has been quite effective in reducing pedestrian mortality. However, alcohol consumption and intoxication in pedestrians remains a fairly important factor in motor vehicle accidents involving pedestrians, since the proportion of pedestrians positive for alcohol, the proportion of severely intoxicated pedestrians with BAC > 1 g/l, and annual mean BAC have remained unchanged.
Language: en |