Time is running and the new millennium will soon be here. The preparations for the ICADTS 50th anniversary, jubilee International Conference on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety, T 2000 in Stockholm are well under way. A number of considerations had to be made when the dates for the conference were chosen, so as to make it possible for as many as possible to come. We settled for May 22 - 26, which we hope will suit almost everyone. Usually, late May also provides very favorable weather conditions and Stockholm is in blossoms. It may be a little too early for you to swim the waters in Stockholm. But on hot days later in the summer you will see that the clean waters attract lots of swimmers. The Stockholm City Conference Centre will be the venue of our conference. It is very centrally located. Communications, hotels, restaurants, shopping and entertainment - everything is within convenient walking distance. We have made pre-reservations for 575 rooms at 12 hotels in the vicinity.
The real attraction, however, is of course the scientific program, for which we are dependent upon the participants. Therefore, this is a call for papers. We will be needing your abstract before the 1st of September, 1999. We have not yet set the date for the full paper. The proceedings will be available before the conference on CD-rom.
T 2000 has its own website, where you will be able to find new information about the conference and about Sweden and Stockholm, which we hope will attract your interest and help you plan your trip. You will find us at http://www.vv.se/ts/t2000.htm. The conference center can be found at http://www.stoccc.se. We urge you to start thinking about what to present at T 2000 and to mark the dates for our Jubilee Conference.
Hans Laurell
Convener of T 2000
President of ICADTS
In 1992, in order to reduce the increasing number of accidents caused by novice, especially young, drivers, Austria introduced a new law which required a two year probationary period for novice drivers. During the probationary period, the BAC limit was reduced from .08 to .01%. Traffic offenses, including driving over the .01% limit, causing an injury or fatality, or committing a serious traffic offense while in the probationary phase, lead to obligatory participation in a driver improvement program as well as an extension of the two years of probation for an additional year. The reduction in crashes among those effected has been steady and continuous. Comparing 1996 with 1991, there has been an absolute decrease of 32.5% in the number of novice drivers involved in injury and fatal crashes. This compares with a reduction of 8.9% for all other drivers in the same time period. Alcohol-related crashes (at or above .08%) showed similar significant reductions -- dropping 30.9% for novice drivers compared to 5.9% for all other drivers. It was also noted that in the year the law was introduced there was a reduction of 18.7% in the number of new licenses issued. Even taking into account this declining number of novice drivers, the analysis still indicates a relative accident reduction of 18.7% overall and 16.8% for alcohol-related.
The authors conclude that the probationary license leads to significant accident reduction as a result of decreasing the exposure (fewer young drivers on the road) as well as lowering the accident risk (safer driver behavior). The analysis was conducted by Gregor Bartl, Robert Esberger, and Christian Brandstätter from the Institute of Traffic Psychology at the Austrian Road Safety Board and reported in the May, 1998 edition of Verkehrspsychologischer Informationsdienst (Traffic-Psychological News Service).
In the same publication, Alexander Kaba's paper that was presented at the European Seminar on Cost-Effectiveness of Road Safety Work and Measures, held in Luxembourg in November 1997, noted that while the age 15- to 24-year-olds dominate in general accident occurrences in Austria, as in all other European countries and internationally, the introduction of the probationary driver's license in Austria in 1992 yielded a completely new development. In 1995, the group of 15- to 24-year-olds in Austria showed a lower involvement in accidents in which the driver was intoxicated (at or above .08%) than the group of 25-to 34-year-olds. This did not occur in other countries.
A study of drugs and driving in Vienna, Austria, conducted by Dr. Daniele Risser and colleagues was reported in the April 1998 edition of the Journal of Forensic Sciences. Drugs that affect the central nervous system are generally assumed to have the potential to impair driving ability. In a retrospective survey, police files and the results of toxicological urine analysis from drivers suspected of driving under the influence of drugs in Vienna from 1993 to 1996 were investigated. Decisive for police intervention was "unsafe driving" (swerving, hesitating, going too slowly, etc.), driving at high speed within the city limits, driving through red lights or stop signs, and driving at night without lights. In one-fifth of the cases drivers caused a traffic accident. Casting suspicion on driving under influence of drugs was mainly caused by impaired coordination of movements, bloodshot eyes, slurred speech, drowsiness, conspicuous behavior, and changed pupils. In the majority of the study population more than two symptoms were recorded by police. In 94% of the cases police suspicions could be confirmed by toxicological urine analysis. THC-COOH (cannabis) was the most frequently found drug, followed by morphine, cocaine (or its metabolite) and methadone. In a few cases, benzodiazepines, amphetamines, barbiturates and methaqualone were found. In 48% of the cases more than one drug was found. The most common being THC/morphine and THC/cocaine.
A report was recently published summarizing the national conference, Partners in Progress: Joining Together Against Impaired Driving. The October 1997 conference brought together 160 participants from across the United States from various professions to join the fight against impaired driving. Sponsored by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), the conference goals included: (1) stimulating effective actions at the State and local level that will help achieve the national goal of reducing alcohol-related fatalities to no more than 11,000 by the year 2005; (2) stimulating networking and partnerships to address the impaired driving problem at the State and local levels; and (3) providing a forum to discuss the newly released Partners in Progress: An Impaired Driving Guide for Action.
While great strides have been made in the area of reducing impaired driving over the past 15 years, America's impaired driving crash rate has stagnated for the past 3 years. The 1997 conference re-focused efforts on reaching the national goal. This goal will not be met without expanding beyond the current state-of-the-art; it will take new ideas, creative approaches, innovative programs, new partners, and new or improved technologies to significantly lower the number of alcohol-related deaths.
Many of the conference attendees participated in the original 1995 Partners Summit. The 1997 conference focused on the report: Partners in Progress: An Impaired Driving Guide for Action that turned the 1995 Summit recommendations into a national action plan. The Guide lays a foundation by setting strategies and steps for meeting the ambitious national goal. Conference participants examined the Guide in detail during each of the following four break-out sessions: (1) Partners: Expanding the Fight to Include Non-Traditional Allies focused on including non-traditional partners, particularly in the health care and business communities; (2) Legislation: What the Future Holds focused on passing effective impaired driving legislation such as .08 BAC and other promising legislation initiatives such as hospital BAC reporting; (3) Enforcement and Adjudication: Making it Work for You, focused on increasing support for enforcement initiatives and providing effective, consistent prosecution and adjudication; and (4) Public Information and Education: Up-Close and Personal, focused on individual responsibility and re-creating pubic concern for the impaired-driving problem.
The 1997 conference is a significant step in achieving the goal. It will take the unified effort of all of the partners to put the Guide into action and to bring others along to join us in this coordinated effort against impaired driving. The commitments to take action on this critical issue are so vital to everyone who shares America's roads. To obtain a copy of the summary report, Partners in Progress: Joining Together Against Impaired Driving, A National Forum to Build Partnerships To Reduce Alcohol-Related Fatalities By the year 2005, contact NHTSA's Impaired Driving Division, NTS-11, Washington, DC 20590, Tel: 202-366-9588, Fax: 202-366-2766.
Dr. Pierre Marquet and colleagues reported on the prevalence of drugs of abuse in drivers involved in road accidents in France in the April 1998 edition of the Journal of Forensic Sciences. This collaborative, anonymous, case-control study was intended to determine the prevalence of opiates, cocaine metabolites, cannabinoids and amphetamines in the urine of drivers injured in road accidents and to compare these values with those of non-accident subjects (patients) in France. Recruitment was performed nationwide in the emergency departments of five hospitals and comprised 296 drivers aged 18 to 35 and 278 non-traumatic patients in the same age range. Females represented 28.4% of drivers and 44.2% of patients. Screening for drugs in urine was performed by fluorescence polarization immunoassays in each center. Each positive result was verified using gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), in a single laboratory. Statistical analysis comprised single-step logistic regression and simultaneously took account of confounding factors and the final differences in prevalence values between the two populations or different subgroups.
Cannabinoids were found in 13.9% of drivers (16.0% of males and 8.3% of females, and 7.5% of patients (12.3% of males, 1.6% of females, ); only in females was this prevalence higher in injured drivers than in patients. Opiates were present in 10.5% of drivers and 10.4% of patient's urine samples, and were more frequent in urine samples positive for cannabinoids, in drivers as well as in patients. The prevalence of cocaine metabolites in drivers and patients was 1.0 and 1.1% and that of amphetamines 1.4 and 2.5%, respectively.
No casual relationship between drugs and accidents should be inferred from this retrospective study. Nevertheless, the high prevalence of cannabis and opiate (licit or illicit) use in young people, whether injured drivers or patients, has potential implications for road traffic safety in France. Cocaine and amphetamines did not appear to be a major problem, unlike the experience in other countries.
In two reviews of the international literature, Prof. W. B. R. Deshapriya, a visiting fellow at the University of Tsukuba in Japan, provides an analysis of BAC limits in several countries and a variety of arguments for lowering the illegal blood alcohol limit in the United States. The reports provide an historical review of BAC limits and other countermeasures. They also describes the literature establishing the traffic safety risks of various blood alcohol levels as well as other information on the impairing effects of even low levels of alcohol. The US, Professor Deshapriya points out, lags behind the trends in many other countries to lower the BAC limit to .08 or even lower. In March of this year, President Clinton endorsed legislation to withhold federal highway money from states that fail to lower their legal threshold for drunken driving to .08. To people who disregard the "lethal threat they pose when they drink and drive, lowering the legal limit will send a strong message that our nation will not tolerate irresponsible acts that endanger our children and our nation," Clinton said. Although 15 states have adopted the .08 standard, the remaining 35 maintain alcohol limits of .10. A federal safety report last year said that the change in the BAC level would save an estimated 600 lives annually. Unfortunately, while the Senate passed this bill, the House of Representatives would not allow it to come to a vote, so it was not implemented. This failure was widely viewed as a capitulation to the alcohol industry.
Recent evidence shows that lowering the legal limit is a promising strategy. In France, for example, the country with the highest per capital alcohol consumption in the world, the reduction in the legal limit to .05 in 1995 resulted in a four percent decrease in fatalities. In Belgium, where the limit was reduced in 1994, a decrease in fatalities of nearly 10 percent was observed in 1995 and a further reduction of 11 percent in 1996.
Prof. Deshapriya discusses the literature regarding the costs and benefits of reducing the BAC limit as well as evaluations of the impact of a .08 limit in those US states that have changed their laws. For a copy of the full articles, contact Prof. Deshapriya at Institute of Social Sciences, University of Tsukuba, 1-1-1 Tennoudai Tsukubashi, Ibarari 305-8571, JAPAN, or Email: deshapri@social.tsukuba.ac.jp.
Paced by double-digit declines in alcohol-related deaths and injuries, fatalities on the state's highways in 1997 declined to the lowest level in 38 years, according to the California Highway Patrol. The CHP's Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System (SWITRS) showed that 3,671 people died in traffic crashes in 1997, down 7.6 percent from 3,972 in 1996. Fatalities were the lowest since 1959, when 3,588 persons died. Alcohol-involved deaths in 1997 dropped 12.3 percent, from 1,254 to 1,100. Alcohol-involved injuries declined 12.5 percent, from 35,654 to 31,189. CHP said DUI checkpoints, increased patrols on county roads, maximum enforcement periods, sober graduation and designated driver programs have all contributed to lower the alcohol-involved deaths and injuries. The state's 1997 mileage death rate -- the number of traffic fatalities per 100 million miles of vehicle travel - dropped to 1.29, an historic low. The rate was 1.42 in 1996.
Research indicates a disturbingly high incidence of unlicensed vehicle use on Australian roads, and crashes involving these motorists make a significant contribution to Australia's road casualty statistics. Amongst motorists involved in fatal crashes in 1992 and 1994, at least 5 per cent of drivers and 19 per cent of motor cycle riders were unlicensed. About half of unlicensed drivers and almost three quarters of unlicensed riders have never held a license for that type of vehicle while disqualified drivers and riders make up most of the balance.
The worst offenders for unlicensed driving and riding are: males, those below 25 years of age, the unemployed, students and blue collar workers, and those travelling in remote rural regions and the Northern Territory. Crashes involving unlicensed motorists accounted for 9 per cent of all road fatalities in 1992 and 1994. Almost half of the deaths involved parties other than the unlicensed motorist. They included 43 occupants of other vehicles and 14 pedestrians.
The unlicensed motorists were more commonly intoxicated than their licensed counterparts. About 18 per cent were moderately intoxicated and 40 per cent were highly intoxicated. Intoxication was particularly prevalent amongst disqualified motorists, perhaps reflecting a high representation of recidivist drink-drivers in that group. The unlicensed motorists were also more commonly speeding or driving too fast for road conditions (45%). Drivers were more commonly not wearing seat belts (46%) and motor cycle riders were more commonly unhelmeted (24%).
Full details of this research are presented in FORS Monograph 20 Profile of Unlicensed Motorists in Fatal Crashes and Monograph 21 Road Behavior of Unlicensed Motorists involved in Fatal Crashes. For copies, contact the Federal Office of Road Safety, GPO Box 594, Canberra ACT 2601, AUSTRALIA, Tel: 1800 026 349, Fax: (02) 6274 7922.
The United States Centers for Disease Control released a summary in the Morbidity Mortality Weekly Review (MMWR), December 5, 1997, that sheds light on some of the circumstances of the 35,547 children younger than 15 years old who were killed in alcohol-related motor vehicle crashes (MVCs) from 1985 through 1996. Analysis of data from fatal crashes over that twelve year period found that "approximately one fourth of all traffic deaths among children age <15 years involved alcohol. Also, in nearly two thirds of passengers deaths involving a legally drunk driver (defined here having a BAC >0.10g/dL), the child was in the car driven by the legally drunk driver." The analysis also noted that only 16% of children who died as passengers in the DUI vehicle were restrained. Drivers with higher BAC levels were less likely to wear their own seat belts as well.The MMWR analysis showed a 26% decrease in the numbers of children killed in alcohol-related MVCs. This is consistent with the fact that the proportion of the total number of fatal MVCs involving alcohol during the period of 1985-1996 has declined by 4%. That decline is attributed to the strengthening and increased enforcement of anti-DUI legislation. The CDC analysis underscores the need for upgrading inadequate occupant protection legislation and the rigorous enforcement of primary safety belt and safety-seat laws.
For a copy of this report, Alcohol-Related traffic Fatalities Involving Children, United States, 1985-1996. MMWR, Vol. 46, No. 48, December 5, 1997, pg 1130-1133, contact the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, Tel: 1-800-843-6356. (Source: Safe Ride News, Vol. XVI. No. 2, Spring 1998)
September 21-23, 1998
9th International Conference-Road Safety in Europe-Bergisch Gladbach, Germany
For information on attending and/or submitting an abstract, contact the Conference Secretariat, VTI, Box 426, S-581 95 Linköping, Sweden. Tel: 46-13-20-40-00, Fax: 46-13-12-61-62, Email: info@vutv.vti.se.
December 6-11, 1998
Tests for BAC in Highway Safety Programs-Supervision and Expert Testimony-Bloomimgton, IN USA
For information and registration, contact the Center for Studies of Law in Action, Indiana University, Sycamore Hall 302, Bloomington, IN 47405 USA, Tel: 812-855-1783, Fax: 812-855-7542.
January 10-14, 1999
78th 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.
May 9-12, 1999
Canadian Multidisciplinary Road Safety Conference XI - Halifax, Nova Scotia
Information about the conference, or abstracts in either English or French can be submitted to CMRSC-XI, Vehicle Safety Research Team, Dalhousie University, 5257 Morris Street, Halifax, Nova Scotia B3J 2X4, CANADA, Tel: 902-494-3290, Fax: 902-425-1096, Email: vsrt@dal.ca.
May 24-27, 1999
16th World Congress of the International Association for Accident and Traffic Medicine-Chongquing, China
For information about attending and/or submitting an abstract, contact the Secretariat of the 16th World Congress of IAATM Research Institute of Surgery, Daping, Chongquing 400042, P.R. China, Tel/Fax: 86-23-68805645, Email: traumars@public.cta.cq.cn.
May 21-26, 2000
15th International Conference on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety, ICADTS Jubilee Conference-Stockholm, Sweden
Contact the Conference Secretariat, c/o The Swedish National Road Administration, SE-781 87 Borlänge, Sweden, Tel: 46 243 75000, Fax: 46 243 75825, Email: t2000@vv.se. Also visit the T2000 web site: http://www.vv.se/ts/t2000.htm. (See related article)