In its 50-year history, ICADTS has documented tremendous progress in the field of alcohol, drugs, and traffic safety. We have seen an explosion of knowledge about the role alcohol plays in traffic safety, who drinks and drives, and where and when. We have documented and examined the role of licit and illicit drugs. We have developed better technologies for measurement and monitoring. Most importantly, we have witnessed dramatic improvements in traffic safety in much of the industrialized world. ICADTS has played an important part in bringing about these improvements.
We can all take great satisfaction in this progress. But on this occasion I want to talk about the next 50 years and how we can continue to increase and apply our knowledge, to extend the progress we have made to save more lives, to encompass more parts of the world in this progress, and to make transportation safer for everyone in the 21st century.
First, let me talk about what we know now. Over the last 20 years or so we have developed a host of strategies with proven effectiveness for reducing impaired driving. What we haven't done is develop a magic way of persuading politicians and policy-makers across the board to put these strategies to work. Without making assumptions about wonderful as-yet-undreamed-of technologies, we have the power to save many thousands of lives each year through more widespread, and more vigorous application of strategies we can pull off the shelves right now.
What role can ICADTS play in promoting the adoption of effective strategies? Researchers are sometimes reluctant or not comfortable serving as advocates for their findings. But researchers can help persuade lawmakers and policy makers to implement strategies that work. We need to think about and have an open discussion on how researchers can become more effective advocates.
The main outlet for our work has always been our T conferences, such as T2000. While these conferences will continue to be our major activity, I would like to expand the activities of our many Working Groups. By encouraging the activities of these groups with financial support and through the publication and distribution of their reports ICADTS can play a bigger role in the implementation of strategies that work. While progress has been made in reducing impaired driving, I am sorry to say that those reductions have been limited to developed countries. In the developing world the road safety situation is rapidly deteriorating. Although developing countries account for only 32 percent of motor vehicles, they are now responsible for 75 percent of fatalities caused by road crashes. We need to pay attention to this major problem and develop a plan to provide assistance to those countries that need it most.
I'm sure that as the next three years unfold, we will find other ways of expanding our effectiveness, as well as continuing the important work we already do. I look forward to serving as the president of ICADTS over the next three years and working with you to achieve further progress.
Barry M. Sweedler, ICADTS President
The Société de l'assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ) is a crown corporation whose mission is to insure and protect people from the risks inherent in use of the road. One of the ways it does this is with statistical comparisons, research and development of road safety strategies which translate into action plans. Since driving while impaired by alcohol or drugs is one of the main causes of road accidents, the SAAQ is very interested in the varied work done on the subject in different parts of the world. Having been selected to organize the 16th Conference on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety in Montréal in 2002, the Société will spare no effort in making the event a unique and profitable experience, an occasion to review progress on a half-century of studies in the matter and sketch a path for the future.
The ICADTS conference will be taking place August 4-9, 2002 at the Palais des Congrès, Montréal's convention centre in the heart of the city, easily accessible by car or subway, a few minutes' walk in the downtown area. The convention centre offers the most up-to-date facilities and technological advances for communications needs. Courteous staff and impeccable service have made the centre's reputation. Montréal, a world-renowned city, an international business and convention mecca where over 3 million fun-loving citizens speak joie de vivre, is a city justifiably proud of its cultural diversity, mingling old-world charm with North American modernism.
Help us with your contacts!
To make the Conference a success, we want to have the greatest number possible of participants. Send the list of your organization's membership to the Secretariat of the Conference: T 2002 Secretariat, Opus 3 inc., 417 rue Saint-Pierre, bureau 203, Montréal (Québec) H2Y 2M4 Canada, or by e-mail: info@opus3.com.
T2002 is a rendez-vous not to be missed. Your help is sought in having the event scheduled in your organization's information bulletin, and linking up its Website with the ICADTS T2002 site at this address: www.saaq.gouv.qc.ca/t2002.
The call for Conference papers will be made this coming October. All information concerning T2002 will be posted on the Website and published in our T2002 newsletter (first issue: Fall 2000).
In June, the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board adopted a Safety Report on Actions to Reduce Fatalities, Injuries, and Crashes Involving the Hard Core Drinking Driver. For purposes of this report, the NTSB uses the term hard core drinking drivers to include repeat offender drinking drivers (that is, offenders who have prior convictions or arrests for a driving while impaired [DWI] by alcohol offense) and high-BAC offenders (that is, all offenders with a blood alcohol concentration [BAC] of 0.15 percent or greater). In 1998 alone, hard core drinking drivers were involved in a minimum of 6,370 highway fatalities, the estimated cost of which was at least $5.3 billion. The report concluded that, while hard core drinking drivers constituted only 0.8 percent (1 of 119) of all drivers on the road in the National Roadside Survey, they constituted 27 percent of drivers in fatal crashes during the same time period in 1996. These data clearly suggest that hard core drinking drivers are over-represented in fatal crashes.
The NTSB reviewed the literature on countermeasures that have been found effective in reducing recidivism, crashes, fatalities, and injuries. This report identifies the highway safety problem involving hard core drinking drivers, discusses research on control measures, and proposes a model program to the States. It also discusses steps taken by the United States Congress to address the hard core drinking driver problem by enacting certain provisions in the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21), and recommends that the Department of Transportation evaluate modifications to the provisions of TEA-21 so that it can be more effective.
The Safety Board believes that a model program to reduce hard core drinking driving should include the following:
The full report can be reviewed on the NTSB's web site at www.ntsb.gov. A printed copy of the report can be obtained by calling 202-314-6180.
A new study conducted by the Styrian Austrian Road Safety Board reviewed the effects of lowering the BAC from .08 to .05 percent in Styria. Comparing 1998, when the new BAC went into effect to1997, the decline in alcohol-related crashes amounted to 11.6 percent. There were 443 alcohol-related crashes in 1997 compared to 387 in 1998. The study concluded that lowering the BAC, in conjunction with corresponding enforcement and increased awareness, is a suitable means to reduce alcohol-related crashes. The study also found that driver behavior depended more strongly on subjective sense of being monitored rather than on the actual amount of monitoring. The study showed that young drivers were less affected by the lower BAC than were older drivers. Drivers up to age 24 years had about the same frequency of alcohol-related crashes in 1998 as in 1997. There was a slight downward trend for persons aged 25-54 and a major downward trend for drivers over age 55. (Source: Verkehrspsychologischer Informationdienst, Mai, 2000)
In 1999, the number of fatal and serious traffic crashes in Hong Kong continued to despite an increase in population, road miles and licensed vehicles. The death toll of 217 was the lowest in 36 years and continues a steady decline from a high of 351 in 1993. Revised drink driving legislation came into effect in December 1995. It set the BAC at .08 percent and enabled police officers to require drivers to be screened for alcohol if they are involved in a traffic crash, commit a moving violation or are suspected of drink driving. Enforcement figures consistently show that approximately 10 percent of nighttime crashes have a drink-driving element. On October 1, 1999, new legislation lowered the BAC to .05 percent and implemented amendments to facilitate police enforcement. (Source: 1999 Annual Report of the Road Safety Council of Hong Kong)
A recent report by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety shows the contrasts in enforcement and perceptions of enforcement in Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States. The report, authored by ICADTS member Allan Williams and colleagues, summarizes information from a telephone survey of more than 2,000 motorists in these countries. Results of the survey indicate that far more motorists in Australia and Canada report having been stopped and tested for alcohol than in The United Kingdom or the United States. In Australia, 82% of motorists reported having been stopped at some point and 47% reported having been stopped three or more times. In the Canada, 63% reported being stopped and 28% said they had been stopped at least three times. By contrast, equivalent figures for the US are 29% and 9% and in the UK 16% and 3%. Australia has an extensive random breath test program. In both the US and Canada, law enforcement officers must have a reason, such as erratic driving, to check a driver for alcohol. In the UK, neither random breath tests nor sobriety checkpoints are conducted but every driver stopped for a traffic violation or involved in a collision is tested for alcohol. The survey results also indicated public support of vigorous enforcement of tough laws in all four countries. For a copy of the full report Self-reported drinking and driving practices and attitudes in four countries and perceptions of enforcement, write: Publications, Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, 1005 N. Glebe Rd., Arlington, VA 22201 USA.
A session at T2000 provided an update on impaired driving trends in a number of industrialized countries for the later part of the 1990s. Researchers from Canada, France, The Netherlands, Germany, the Great Britain and the United States presented current trends and interpretation. This was the fourth occasion where experts from around the world met to continue discussions begun in 1993. At that first meeting, dramatic reductions in drinking and driving in all industrialized countries during the decade of the 1980s were reported. 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. These dramatic decreases in drinking and driving did not continue in the early 1990s. In most countries the declines reversed in the early 1990s and rates of drinking and driving began to increase. Toward the middle of the decade the increases stabilized and in some countries began to experience declines once again. These current decreases in the second half of the 1990s are much less dramatic than those experienced in the 1980s. Some features of the trends include:
Presenters from these countries provided reasons for the changing trends, which varied from country to country. There are some common themes. Levels of enforcement seem to stand out as a variable that directly effects the level of drinking and driving in most of the countries. Reducing per capita consumption of alcohol also seems to be correlated to reduced drinking and driving. Another factor that appears to relate to drinking and driving is the amount of attention paid to the problem by political leaders. When progress has been steady, leaders tend to shift priorities to other public concerns believing that the problem has been solved. This results in less public attention and less enforcement. For example, a number of countries have begun to place greater emphasis on drug impaired driving. Time will tell whether this shift in resources will effect the levels of enforcement for drinking and driving.
In order to continue and even accelerate progress each country should carefully review what worked in the past and look at what research shows is effective in other countries. We have a long history of learning from each other and this should continue and even be expanded. Some examples of transferring countermeasures include the use of random breath testing, lowering the legal BAC and the recent move by The Netherlands to reduce the legal BAC for young drivers based on the effectiveness of this measure in other countries. Hopefully, there will be many more examples in the future.
Information for this article was drawn from papers prepared by Mayhew, Beirness and Simpson (CAN); Biecheler-Fretel and Filou (FR); Kroj and Friedel (D); Clayton and Tunbridge (GB); Mathijssen (NL), Stewart and Fell (USA); and Sweedler (USA). The full papers can be accessed on the web www.icadts2000.com.
September 5-10, 2000
MADD's 20th Anniversary & 2000 National Conference, Alexandria, VA, USA
Contact MADD at 214-744-6233, Ext. 224 for registration info.
September 20-22, 2000
Road Safety on Three Continents-Pretoria, South Africa
Contact VTI, Fax: 46-13-12-61-62, email: vti-utveckling.se
December 10-15, 2000
The Robert F. Borkenstein Course on Alcohol, Drugs and Highway Safety: Testing, Research and Litigation Bloomington, IN, USA
Contact Indiana University at Tel: 812-855-1783 or Email: dlindsay@indiana.edu
January 7-11, 2001
80th Annual Meeting of the U.S. Transportation Research Board-Washington, DC USA
Special alcohol and drug sessions will be featured. Contact Dr. Richard Pain, Tel: 202-334-2960, Fax: 202-334-2003, Email: rpain@nas.edu.
August 4-9, 2002
16th International Conference on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety, T2002-Montréal, Québec, Canada
For information visit the Société de l'assurance automobile du Québec website at www.saaq.gouv.qc.ca/t2002.