Almost 200 abstracts from 20 different countries have been submitted for presentation at T'97, the 14th International Conference on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety. The major conference of ICADTS will be held in the city of Annecy, France from September 21-26, 1997. The abstracts cover such topics as: driving performance, roadside surveys, legislative strategies, epidemiology, measurement and screening, enforcement, prevention and rehabilitation programs. On the shores of the cleanest lake in Europe, surrounded by a scenic range of mountains, Annecy is a charming town in the Northern French Alps, 40 km from the Geneva International Airport. In addition to the scientific program, an extensive social program is also planned. The quality of the technical program along with the lovely setting and attractive social program should add up to an interesting and memorable conference.
Authors have been notified of the approval of their proposed papers. Full papers are due by March 31, 1997. This will allow for publication of the conference proceedings prior to the conference.
To obtain the second and final announcement, including the registration brochure, contact the Conference Secretariat, c/o C.E.R.M.T, B.P. 132, 74004 Annecy Cedex, FRANCE, Tel: 33-4-50-45 61 79, Fax: 33-4-50-45 36 92 or by contacting the Reporter editors.
ICADTS forges forward with plans for the new millennium. The jubilee T'2000 conference is planned for Stockholm, Sweden. The year 2000 is the 50th anniversary of ICADTS: the first "T" conference took place in Stockholm in 1950. Plans are proceeding under the direction of Hans Laurel (S), President Elect of ICADTS, with the support of the Swedish National Road Administration. Dates of the conference are May 21-26, 2000 (mark your calendars!) and the conference venue is the Nora Latin, a conveniently located and attractive facility in downtown Stockholm. Sponsors are being recruited for the conference, and the King of Sweden has agreed to be a patron.
The location of the T'2003 conference has not yet been selected. John Oliver of the Department of Forensic Medicine and Science at the University of Glasgow made a very appealing presentation to the ICADTS Executive Board at its meeting in Washington in January proposing Glasgow, Scotland for the venue. ICADTS Executive Board member James Dunbar (UK), and members Paul Williams (UK), and Andrew Clayton (UK) join Dr. Oliver in the organizing committee for the proposed conference. They suggest the Glasgow convention center as the venue. The convention center is a beautiful, modern facility modeled after the Sydney Opera House. Dr. Oliver brought descriptions of the convention center, the attractions in the city, and touring possibilities in the surrounding countryside.
The ICADTS Executive Board very much appreciated receiving this proposal. The Board welcomes additional proposals of conference venues for T'2003. Proposals will be accepted by the Board until its next meeting in September in Annecy, at which time a preliminary decision on the venue will be made.
The ICADTS executive Board met in Washington in January in conjunction with the Annual meeting of the Transportation Research Board. Eight Board members, 18 ICADTS members and 3 guests attended the meeting presided over by President Jack McLean (AUS). The Board reviewed planning for T'97 in Annecy, T'2000 in Stockholm and a bid from Glasgow for T'2003 (see related articles), approved new by-laws, received reports from the Widmark Committee, the Treasurer, the Secretary, the Nominating Committee and the Membership Committee. The Board agreed to continue ICADTS relationship with the Journal of Traffic Medicine and set up an ICADTS home page. It received reports from the 7 ICADTS working groups and approved guidelines for establishing working groups. The next meeting of the Executive Board will take place in Annecy, France on September 21, 1997. The General Meeting of ICADTS will also take place in Annecy on September 21. Any ICADTS member can receive a copy of the full minutes of the Board Meeting by contacting the Secretary.
A new report, by ICADTS Past President Herb Simpson (C), and ICADTS members Dan Mayhew (C) and Doug Beirness (C) of the Traffic Injury Research Foundation of Canada (TIRF), revisits the subject of dealing with the hard core drinking driver. The report re-examines the problem of those individuals who repeatedly drive after drinking, especially with high BACs and who seem relatively resistant to changing this behavior. The report shows that there has been virtually no change in the magnitude of the problem since the release of TIRF's previous report in 1991. Hard core drinking drivers account for only 1% of all drivers on the road at night during the weekend, but they represent nearly half of all the fatal crashes at that time. They account for 27% of all fatally injured drivers and 65% of all fatally injured drivers who are drinking.
The report focuses on a variety of measures that offer promise for dealing efficiently and effectively with hard core drinking drivers. The report recommends: 1) the use of an efficient method of identifying and processing hard core drinking drivers when they enter the legal/administrative system; 2) assessment of DWI offenders to identify the problems they represent, particularly those related to alcohol dependence; 3) treatment and rehabilitation programs that are viewed as an essential and viable part of any strategy designed to deal with the problem of the hardcore drinking driver; and 4) programs to prevent or limit the opportunity of the "hard core" to drink and drive prior to, during, and even following treatment. Some of these programs -- such as license suspension -- can be targeted directly at the offender; others can be directed at the offender's vehicle.
The ICADTS Working Group Developing Guidelines for Medicinal Drugs and Driving is seeking a number of physicians who actually prescribe medication to their driving patients to join the working group. The guidelines are intended to provide information about the interaction of various drugs and their effects on driving to physicians for their use as they prescribe medication. Those interested in assisting the working group can contact either of its co-chairmen, Johan de Gier (NL) at Tel: 31-43-3883305, Fax: 31-43-3257380 or J. Javier Alvarez (SP) at Tel: 34-83-423077, Fax: 34-83-423022.
In 1995 in the United States, for the first time in a decade, the percentage of alcohol-related fatalities did not decrease -- they remained constant at 41 percent of all those killed in highway crashes. Since 1986, this percentage had steadily declined by a total of 21 percent -- from 52 percent. The 17,274 alcohol-related deaths in 1995 represented an increase of 4 percent over the previous year. While this figure is down considerably from the 24,045 who died in alcohol-related crashes in 1986, the 1995 increase is troubling. At the same time there was a move to reduce spending and to allow the States much more latitude in dealing with many issues, including traffic safety.
In order to discuss this important issue a workshop was held at the National Academy of Sciences Conference Center in August 1996. The workshop was sponsored by the Transportation Research Board's Committee on Alcohol, Other Drugs and Transportation and cosponsored by seven associations and government agencies. The purpose of the workshop was to develop guidance to governments at all levels, safety advocates and private industry. The findings of the workshop were presented at the 76th Annual Meeting of the Transportation Research Board in Washington, DC, USA in January, by ICADTS Secretary Barry Sweedler (USA) of the National Transportation Safety Board. While there was no attempt to reach consensus among the participants, there was general agreement on several important points: 1) there is an urgent need to raise the public's awareness and concern about the impaired driving problem; 2) an adequate source of dedicated funding for safety programs is needed; 3) appropriate action should be taken at the Federal, State and local level; 4) proven countermeasures must be implemented and applied vigorously; 5) enforcement activities should be aggressively publicized in order to make them maximally effective; 6) new technology in all areas should be used to improve safety and law enforcement effectiveness; 7) the emerging concern about health care costs should be used to engender public concern and encourage the participation of the health care sector in combatting impaired driving; 8) a new management system should be established for Federal participation in State programs; 9) the implementation plan developed by the "Partners in Progress" process should be the framework for future action and 10) a new generation of highway safety leaders is needed.
For additional details on the workshop, a TRB Circular will be issued shortly. The circular will contain a number of background papers prepared for the workshop and greater detail on the items discussed above. To request a copy, Contact TRB at Tel: 202-334-2960, Fax: 202-334-2003.
The Road Safety Committee of the Parliament of Victoria, Australia recently published a report entitled, Inquiry into the Effects of Drugs (Other than Alcohol) on Road Safety in Victoria. The report summarizes existing research on the effects of various drugs, including prescription drugs, on behavior and on traffic safety. It also examines policies and practices regarding drug impairment in various countries around the world.
The report includes a number of recommendations for knowledge and policy development, including the development of international scientific guidelines for measuring the effects of drugs on driver performance and the establishment of a database to maintain information from police, hospitals and coroners on drugs involved in road crashes. It also recommends countermeasures designed to create an overall strategy of prevention, detection, action, and research, including deterrence publicity, better labeling of prescription medications, and training of police, magistrates, and prosecutors. A principal recommendation of the committee is that the current Road Safety Act be amended to change the restriction on driving under the influence of other drugs in favor of restrictions on driving while impaired. It has adopted this approach because science has not yet established categorical levels for drugs and substances in the body that determine when drivers become an unacceptable risk on the road.
For a copy of the full report, contact the Road Safety Committee at Level 8, 35 Spring Street, Melbourne, Victoria 3000, Australia, Tel: 61-3-9651-3500, Fax: 61-3-9651-3691, Email: parlrsc@vicnet.net.au.
According to the California Highway Patrol, the number of drivers who are unlicensed or driving with a suspended or revoked license has steadily increased over the past several years. More than one million people are estimated to be driving without ever having been issued a license and 720,000 people are driving with suspended licenses. In response, the San Francisco Police Department has developed and implemented an award-winning impoundment program. After obtaining a grant from the Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) and San Francisco Board of Supervisors approval for an ordinance to charge a $150 administrative fee, the San Francisco Traffic Offenders Program (STOP) was implemented. As in the model program developed by the Santa Rosa Police Department, the court may impound for 30 days the vehicle of drivers who are unlicensed or driving with a suspended or revoked license.
During 1995, the first year of the program, 7,066 vehicles were impounded. The traffic offender fund generated $721,000 in revenue from the administrative fee and collected another $1 million from unpaid traffic citations, vehicle registration and tow fees. There has been a 26% reduction in total fatal and injury collisions; a 25% reduction in hit-and-run collisions and increased DUI enforcement. There was also a significant reduction in crime statistics. STOP was selected as one of the 10 national recipients of the 1996 NHTSA Administrator's Excellence Award. "We are very impressed with the results of the program", said OTS Director Arthur Anderson. "One of the most important aspects of its success is its self-sufficiency. The administrative fees continues to fund the program long after the grant expires, promising positive strides in traffic safety for years to come." OTS has awarded grants to numerous additional cities to help fund similar impoundment programs for the current fiscal year. For a copy of the Vehicle Impound "Blueprint", contact OTS at Tel: 916-262-0990. (Source: OTS Tracks, Vol. 12, Issue 2)
In 1970 and 1978, a set of strict countermeasures against drunk driving went into effect in Japan. A recent article by E. B. R. Deshapriya and Nobutada Iwase in Accident Analysis and Prevention summarizes the history of impaired driving countermeasures in Japan and describes their effects on traffic crashes. The national strategy in Japan included a very low legal BAC limit (.005 percent) and progressive penalties for those above the legal limit along with vigorous police enforcement. As a result of these efforts, Japan has an extremely low rate of alcohol-related traffic fatalities. The article reports that only 5 percent of traffic deaths in Japan are alcohol-related (as compared to 41 percent in the U.S., for example). This finding is particularly interesting in that while death rates have been falling, the average annual per capita consumption of alcohol has doubled since 1970 (to about 6.3 liters, similar to that in the U.S.). Japanese drivers tend to have a very strong sense of social responsibility and believe that they should not drive after drinking even small amounts of alcohol. The full article can be found in Accident Analysis and Prevention, Vol. 28, No. 6, pp. 721-731.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving released its Rating the States: A Report Card on the Nations Attention to the Problem of Alcohol- and Other Drug-Impaired Driving in November of 1996. Overall, the nation's grade for its efforts to combat impaired driving dropped from a B- in 1993 to a C in 1996. The ratings are based on performance in 11 categories: political leadership, legislation, law enforcement, victims' issues, alcohol-related traffic fatality trends, statistics and records, administrative measures and criminal sanctions, regulatory controls and availability, public awareness, youth legislation, prevention and education, and self sufficiency programs. While the grade of the nation as a whole went down, 30 states got better grades than in 1993 and ten states received the same grade. The remaining ten states got lower grades. The report provides a summary of each state's efforts, including strengths and challenges in each of the rating categories. No state received an A. Arizona, California, Florida, and North Carolina received A-, the highest grade. For a copy of the full report, contact the national office of MADD at 511 E. John Carpenter Freeway, Suite 700, Irving, Texas 75062-8187, Tel: 214-744-6233.
The ICADTS Executive Board recently elected new members to ICADTS. They include: Dr. David Shinar (IS), Dr. Donald W. Collier (USA), Ms. Barbara E. Ryan (USA), Dr. Marti Mäki (FL), and Dr. Tibor Varga. Each new member was nominated by two active ICADTS members, approved by the Membership Committee and the Executive Board. Colleagues working in the field of alcohol, drugs and traffic safety who are interested in becoming members of ICADTS, contact ICADTS Secretary Barry Sweedler, % NTSB, Washington, D.C. 20594, USA, Tel: 202-382-6810, Fax: 202-382-8006 or Email: Sweedlb@ntsb.gov for an application.
ICADTS makes its latest foray into the electronic age by announcing a new Home Page. The Home Page will include information about ICADTS, upcoming conferences, meetings and other events, proceedings from T'95 in Adelaide past and current editions of the ICADTS Reporter, and the index of Reporter articles. It is being sponsored by the Road Accident Research Unit of the University of Adelaide in South Australia, whose Director, Jack McLean is ICADTS President. A special thanks to webmaster, Craig Kloeden (AUS), who is doing all the work. The new ICADTS Home Page can be found at http://raru.adelaide.edu.au/icadts. We invite you to visit the page often, as it grows to include more and more useful information. Previously, the Reporter and its index had been posted on the internet by ICADTS member Tony Stein (USA).
April 14-17, 1997
3rd African Road Safety Congress -- Promotion of Road Safety and Protection of the Environment in Africa - Pretoria, South Africa
Contact the Congress Secretariat, Conference Planners, PO Box 82, Irene, 1675 South Africa, Tel: 27-1263-1681, Fax: 27-1263-1680, Email: conplan@iafrica.com.
May 17-22,1997
41st International Institute on the Prevention and Treatment of Dependencies -- New Directions-New Opportunities - Cairo, Egypt
Contact ICAA, Case Postale 189, 1001 Lausanne, Switzerland, Tel: 44-21-320-98-65, Fax: 44-21-320-98-17, Email: icaa@pingnet.ch
May 18-23, 1997
Tests for BAC in Highway Safety Programs -- Supervision and Expert Testimony (Including an update on Workplace Testing) - Bloomington, IN, USA
Contact Center for Studies of Law in Action, Indiana University, Sycamore Hall 302, Bloomington, IN 47405, USA, Tel: 812-855-1783, Fax: 812-855-7542.
June 9-11, 1997
Canadian Multidisciplinary Road Safety Conference X - Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Contact Department of Civil Engineering, Ryerson Polytechnic University, 350 Victoria Street, Toronto, Ontario M5B 2K3 Canada, Tel: 416-979-5192, Fax: 416-979-5174, Email: cmrsc_x@acs.ryerson.ca.
June 6-12, 1997
Lifesavers 15 - National conference on Highway Safety Priorities - Orlando, Florida, USA
Contact Lifesavers Conference, P.O. Box 30045, Alexandria, VA 22310, USA, Fax: 703-922-7944.
September 21-25, 1997
T'97 -- The 14th International Conference on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety - Annecy, France
Contact T'97 Secretariat at CERMT, BP 132, 74004 Annecy Cedex, France, Tel: 33-4-50-45 61 79, Fax: 33-4-50-45 36 92. See related article.
October 5-9,1997
The Annual Conference of the Society of Forensic Toxicologists (SOFT) - Snowbird, Utah
Contact Linda Williams, Conference Coordinator, Center for Human Toxicology, University of Utah, Tel: 801-581-5809, Webpage: http://lysine.pharm.utah.edu/~dcrouch/SOFT97.html.
November 23-27,1997
The 4th International Conference on Safety and the Environment in the 21st Century - Tel-Aviv, Israel
Contact the Secretariat, Dan Knassim Ltd., PO Box 1931, Ramat-Gan 52118 Israel, Tel: 972-3-6133340, Fax: 972-3-6133341.
January 11-15, 1998
77th Annual Meeting of the U.S. Transportation Research Board - Washington, D.C., USA
Contact Dr. Richard Pain, Tel: 202-334-2960, Fax: 202-334-2003.