Early results from NHTSA's 2004 Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) show that fatalities in alcohol-related crashes in the U.S. decreased in 2004 for a second year, declining by 2.4 percent, and falling below 17,000 fatalities for the first time in five years. Fatalities dropped from 17,105 in 2003 to 16,694 in 2004. Fatalities declined by 1.8 percent in crashes where the highest blood alcohol concentration (BAC) was 0.08 grams per deciliter (g/dl) or greater, dropping from 14,678 in 2003 to 14,409 in 2004.
The total number of persons killed in the U.S. in motor vehicle traffic crashes declined to 42,636 in 2004 from 42,884 in 2003. This is the second consecutive year in which traffic crash fatalities have declined after reaching a recent high of 43,005 in 2002. With an expected increase in vehicle miles traveled (VMT), the fatality rate per 100 million VMT will be 1.46, the lowest recorded by the Department of Transportation. (Source: www.nhtsa.dot.gov)
The ICADTS Executive Board has selected Oslo, Norway to host the 19th International Conference on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety in 2010. The Norwegian Institute of Public Health will be the lead organizer, assisted by other Norwegian institutes. The conference will be held at the modern Oslo Kongressenter, located in the center of Oslo.
The ICADTS Executive Board plans to meet in Oslo on August 26, 2005, at which time they will visit the conference venue and meet with the local organizers. On August 25, the Division of Forensic Toxicology and Drug Abuse of the National Institute of Public Health will host a seminar in Oslo. Presentations will be made on various alcohol, drugs and traffic safety issues by Norwegian and international experts.
The number of car drivers under the influence of alcohol decreased again in 2004. During alcohol checks last year 3.4% of the drivers tested exceeded the permitted BAC of .05%. That is less than in 2003, when it was 3.9%. These figures resulted from the annual roadside survey by the Transport Advisory Agency of the Dutch Ministry of Transport. This roadside survey consists of about 70 alcohol checks all over the country during weekend-nights conducted between 11:00 PM and 4:00 AM. This result is the lowest since 1975. About 85 percent of those testing positive are men, mostly in the 35-49 years-old age group. Overall, the number of people killed and injured in road traffic in 2004 decreased significantly. In 2004, 881 persons were fatally injured, 19 percent less than in 2003, when 1,088 fatalities occurred. The number of injured persons hospitalized after a road crash dropped 10% to 9,486.
A literature review carried out by Bandolier, an independent journal about evidence-based healthcare, written by Oxford scientists, found that pilots used to smoking cannabis and trained in simulator tasks have impaired function up to 24 hours after smoking cannabis. Four relevant studies were found. All the studies used simulators in which pilots were trained in specific tasks for familiarisation before the study began. They then used a baseline set of measurements of flying ability which measured a number of different criteria, for example, deviations of height or heading or ability to land the aeroplane at a fixed point on a runway. The set tasks were repeated at times after smoking from 15 minutes to 48 hours. The dose of THC varied between 0.09 mg/kg (6.3 mg for a 70 kg man) to 20 mg. All the pilots were men, and all had prior experience of cannabis use, usually in a social setting. Some studies measured subjective "high", and some measured blood concentrations of THC. All of the studies found that with cannabis, pilots' performance deteriorated, predominantly in the first few hours after smoking, but also at later times.
A more detailed description of the review can be found at: http://www.jr2.ox.ac.uk/bandolier/bandopubs/cannfly/cannfly.html.
The ICADTS Illegal Drugs and Driving Working Group recently met on June 21-22, 2005 in Woods Hole, Massachusetts, U.S. in conjunction with the Transportation Research Board's workshop on Drugs and Traffic. (See related article below.) The group agreed on a two-year agenda which includes four projects to pursue leading up to the 2007 ICADTS Conference in Seattle. These projects include: 1) Organize and conduct a 3-day international consensus meeting to develop a set of standards/guidelines for drugged driving research, 2) Conduct a literature review to evaluate the per se DUID legislation in various countries and submit the work to the Campbell Collaboration (C2). C2 is a non-profit organization that aims to "help people make well-informed decisions about the effects of interventions in the social, behavioral and educational arenas." 3) Broadening the scope of international research on drugs and driving, by securing international contacts and copies of current DUID laws in traditionally less active jurisdictions (e.g. South America, Asia, and Africa). 4) Secure funds to conduct an international emergency/trauma room study to document the prevalence and types of illegal drug use among injured drivers. The working group is seeking participants from five or six countries to conduct individual studies using a standardized protocol. Dr. J. Michael Walsh is the chair of this Working Group. He can be contacted at: jmwalsh@walshgroup.org
Since many of the working group members will be attending the 6th Ignition Interlock Symposium in Annecy, France during September 25-27, Chairman Paul Marques has convened a meeting of the ICADTS Interlocks Working Group. The meeting will be held on Sunday at 2:30-4:30 PM (14:30-16:30) at the Imperial Palace Hotel. By late September, the volume 2, ICADTS Interlock Report will have been completed and Dr. Marques hopes to have it ready for distribution at the meeting. For additional information about the meeting or the working group, contact Dr. Marques at: marques@pire.org.
The Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the Toronto Police Service, and Mothers Against Drunk Driving-Canada have produced and are distributing a video that chronicles the story of 14 friends who, while returning from a party to celebrate the end of the school year, were involved in a multi-vehicle crash just outside of Perth, Ontario, in 1999. The teens were heading home in a four-car convoy when one car pulled out to pass on a straight stretch of highway and struck a pick-up truck, which was towing a trailer with a car inside. The subsequent chain of events left five Ottawa youths dead. The video is targeted at high school students and can be viewed free on the web at: www.madd.ca.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recently completed two systematic reviews of published studies that assessed the effectiveness of designated driver promotion programs and school-based programs for reducing drinking and driving and riding with drinking drivers. The systematic reviews were conducted for The Guide to Community Preventive Services (Community Guide), which provides recommendations on community population-based interventions to promote health and prevent disease, injury, disability, and premature death. The systematic review of designated driver promotion programs examined two types of programs: population-wide promotion campaigns and incentive programs to encourage individuals in drinking establishments to act as designated drivers. According to the Community Guide rules of evidence, there is insufficient evidence to recommend either type of promotion program.
The systematic review of school-based programs evaluated three classes of interventions: school based instructional programs, peer organizations, and social norming campaigns. According to the Community Guide rules of evidence, there is sufficient evidence to recommend as effective school-based instructional programs for reducing riding with drinking drivers. However, there is insufficient evidence to determine the effectiveness of these programs for reducing drinking and driving. Despite some evidence of beneficial effects, there is also insufficient evidence to determine the effectiveness of peer organizations and social norming campaigns, due to the small number of available studies.
The reviews were conducted, in collaboration with the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, by the Task Force on Community Preventive Services, which included: Susan M. Ditter, Randy W. Elder, James L. Nichols, Ruth A. Shults, David A. Sleet, Lisa C. Barrios, and Richard Compton . The reviews appeared in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Vol. 28, Issue 5, Supplement 1, June 2005. Links to 1-page summaries of the reviews and the published papers are available at: www.thecommunityguide.org/mvoi/default.htm.
A report in Transportation Research Part E: The Logistics and Transportation Review (Vol. 41, No. 5, 2005) by M. Vollrath, H.P. KrĂºger and R. Lobmann studied the effect of relaxing the BAC limit in Germany. In 1993, during the process of the German reunification, East Germany raised the blood alcohol concentration limit from 0% to 0.08% to conform the limit in West Germany. Three roadside surveys were conducted to assess the short-term and long-term effects of raising the blood alcohol concentration limit (directly before the change, at 4 months, and at 16 months). Overall, 21,198 drivers were stopped and tested. By comparing an East German region in which the blood alcohol concentration limit had been raised to a West German region in which no such legal change had been enacted, the effects of different limits as well as the effect of raising the limit were analyzed. The results show that the major effect of raising the blood alcohol concentration limit is an increase in the blood alcohol concentration of drivers who are under the influence of alcohol while the number of such drivers remains constant. This effect is especially strong for young drivers, indicating that they are more vulnerable to legal changes than older drivers.
John Bailey, long-time ICADTS member and one of New Zealand's pioneer road safety researchers, died of motor neurone disease on August 4. He was 61. His beliefs that graphic anti-drink-drive advertising was counter-productive and that campaigns needed to focus on a small hard core of drunk drivers put him at odds with road safety bureaucrats in New Zealand. He argued that repeat drink-drivers needed treatment, not punishment, and that people who drove after two or three drinks were not a risk. Dr. Bailey was frequently sought out as a media commentator on road safety issues and regularly appeared before parliamentary select committees. With a background in chemistry, in the early 1970s he was asked to comment on whether the recently introduced blood-testing of drivers was having an effect on reducing the road toll. That started an interest in traffic safety and the road toll that continued for the rest of his life. In 1996, Dr Bailey left Environmental Science and Research and he and his wife, Margaret, set up a road safety consultancy.
A new study decomposes the New Zealand risk of driving at night into risk associated with alcohol and risk associated with inherently night time factors. Many studies show that driving at night is more risky in terms of crash involvements per distance traveled than driving during the day. The reasons for this include the more prevalent use of alcohol by drivers at night, the effects of fatigue on the driving task and the risk associated with reduced visibility. Although the consumption of alcohol prior to driving occurs most commonly at night, drink-driving is not inherently a night time risk factor. The overall risk associated with alcohol use by drivers was shown to decrease with increasing age for the most risky situation analysed (male drivers on weekend nights). Given the levels of drinking and driving on weekend nights, the overall effect of alcohol was shown to contribute almost half of weekend night time risk for drivers aged under 40 on lower volume roads, but to contribute little to overall risk on higher-volume roads, consistent with other research showing that higher-volume roads are not favoured by drinking drivers. Risk at night relative to risk during the day (excluding risk associated with drinking and driving) was shown to decrease with age. Roads with illumination at night are less risky at night relative to during the day than roads without illumination. The risks estimated in this paper reflect the behaviour of the road users studied and their prevalence on the roads under the conditions analysed. The paper was authored by M.D. Keall, W.J. Frith, and T.L. Patterson of the New Zealand Ministry of Transport and is an in press article for Accident Analysis and Prevention.
A recent study characterized self-reported driving behaviour, attitudes towards driving and assumptions about the effects of cannabis on driving, among two different volunteer groups: 63 regular cannabis users (RCUs; cannabis use>monthly) and 46 undergraduate student users, all from the West Midlands. More detailed information was provided by structured interviews with an additional sample of 23 regular users from southern England. Within each group, many respondents had driven whilst under the influence of cannabis (regular users, 82%; students, 40%; interviewees, 100%). Majorities among the regular users and interviewees continued to do so at least monthly. Most users believed that cannabis impaired driving only slightly. More stops by the police for drug-driving than for drink-driving were reported, but these rarely resulted in conviction and were not a deterrent. Hence, cannabis users are very willing to drive after using the drug (often combined with alcohol), and even while intoxicated. They consider its effects on driving to be minimal; indeed, many consider it to promote better driving. Attitudes towards drink-driving were much more negative. Finally, most interviewees said that roadside drug testing would be the only efficacious deterrent to drug-driving. The authors are P. Terry and K.A. Wright of the School of Psychology, University of Birmingham. The study appeared in the Journal of Addictive Behaviors, Vol. 30, No. 3, 2005.
A study by P. Holmgren, A. Holmgren and J. Ahlner appeared in Forensic Science International (Vol. 151, No. 1, 2005) analysed blood samples from fatally injured drivers in Sweden for the years 2000-2002. Test were conducted for alcohol, pharmaceuticals and illicit drugs. The total number of drivers was 920 and in 93%, a toxicological investigation was performed. About 85% of the drivers were men. 96% of women were car drivers while the corresponding figure for men was about 78% and about 13% were motorcyclists. The number of positive cases increased from 38.9% in year 2000 to 45.9% in year 2002 and alcohol was the most common drug with frequencies of 19.8%, 25.0% and 21.8% for the studied years 2000, 2001 and 2002, respectively. The median blood alcohol concentration ranged from 1.6 to 2.0mg/mL for men and from 1.2 to 1.8mg/mL for women. There was a decrease in cases where alcohol was the only drug detected, from 52 out of 58 cases (90%) in year 2000 to 41 out of 61 cases (67%) in 2002. At the same time there was an increase, from 5.4% to 10.0% of illicit drugs, mainly amphetamine, and the cases with multiple drug intake increased from 10% to 26%. The prevalence of pharmaceuticals as the only drug or drugs detected decreased from 14.0% to 10.4% and in the majority of these cases the drug concentrations were within the therapeutic range.
The Traffic Injury Research Foundation (TIRF) has released a new report, Alcohol Interlock Programs: Enhancing Acceptance, Participation and Compliance, authored by Doug Beirness and Robyn Robertson. The report is based on the presentations and deliberations from the fourth international symposium on alcohol ignition interlock programs that was held in Hilton Head, South Carolina in October, 2003. The theme of the symposium was "Enhancing Acceptance, Participation, and Effectiveness of Interlock Programs". The program included sessions on Implementation issues, the Status of Interlock Programs Around the World, and two panels on Problems and Solutions. There were also two workshop sessions: one dealing with Enhancing Acceptance; the other discussing issues associated with Enhancing Participation and Compliance. This document provides a summary of each of the presentations at the symposium. The report also includes a section outlining some of the common ideas and themes that emerged from discussions in the workshop sessions. The full report can be viewed on the TIRF website: www.trafficinjuryresearch.com.
The Transportation Research Board Committee on Alcohol, Other Drugs, and Transportation recently held a workshop to discuss the current state of knowledge of drugs in traffic. The workshop was organized by Committee Chair Kathryn Stewart and held at the National Academy of Sciences conference center in Woods Hole, Massachusetts on June 20-21. ICADTS was a cosponsor, along with the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the National Institute on Drug Abuse, and Transport Canada. The workshop provided an opportunity for researchers from various areas of traffic safety and drug research to summarize and synthesize the current state of knowledge regarding drugs in traffic, including several important topics, such as the risks posed by drugs in traffic, the effects of drugs, medicinal drugs, the legal framework, and enforcement. It was attended by committee members, other researchers, government policy makers, and representatives of advocacy organizations. Eight countries were represented. A TRB Circular will be published, including background papers and summaries of the discussions. The Circular will be posted on the TRB and ICADTS websites.
September 25-27, 2005
6th Annaul Ignition Interlock Symposium - Annecy, France
The symposium theme is: A Global Perspective.
Visit: www.ignitioninterlocksymposium.com for information.
October 23-28, 2005
48th International ICAA Conference on Dependencies - Budapest, Hungary
The conference theme is: Science, Politics and the Practitioners
Visit: www.icaa.hu or www.icaa.ch for information.
December 4-9, 2005
The Borkenstein Course on Alcohol and Highway Safety: Testing, Research and Litigation - Bloomington, Indiana USA
Contact: Center for Studies of Law in Action, Indiana Univ. Tel: 812-855-1783, Fax: 812-855-7542, Email: dlindsay@indiana.edu.
January 22-26, 2006
85th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board - Washington, DC USA
Alcohol and drug impaired driving technical sessions, meetings of the TRB Committee on Alcohol, Other Drugs and Transportation and the ICADTS Executive Board will be featured.
Visit www.trb.org/trb/meeting for meeting information.
October 16-18, 2006
20th World Congress of the International Traffic Medicine Association - Melbourne, Australia
Contact www.trafficmed@vifm.org for information.
August 26-31, 2007
T'2007 - 18th International Conference on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety - Seattle, Washington, United States
Sponsored by ICADTS and The International Association of Forensic Toxicologists.
Visit www.icadts2007.org for information.