EU Progress in Fighting Drink Driving and the Use of Alcohol - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

Mircea Steriu

ETSC Communications and PIN Project Officer

Dublin 16 April 2012

EU Progress in Fighting Drink Driving and the Use of Alcohol Interlock Devices

• 1. Introduction to ETSC and our work on drink

driving

• 2. Provisional data on reducing the number of

road deaths attributed to drink driving

• 3. Examples of alcohol interlocks usage in EU

member states

Presentation outline

ETSC description

• Independent non-governmental organisation

promoting science-based approach to road safety

• Supported in our work by 45 member
• rganisations across Europe (RSA in Ireland)
• Funded by our members, the European

Commission and corporate sponsors

• Bringing together practitioners, researchers,

policy-makers and parliamentarians from across the EU

ETSC Activities

Safe&Sober Campaign and Drink-driving policy network Road Safety Performance Index (PIN) - Ranking EU countries‘ performances STudents Acting to Reduce Speed Road Safety ‘At’ Work and ‘To’ Work Monitoring EU transport safety policy BikePal

Background to drink driving in Europe

• Up to 2% of kilometres driven in the EU are driven with

an illegal Blood Alcohol Concentration

• Of the 31,000 deaths in road collisions in the EU in 2010,

11% were attributed by Member States to drink driving

• According to EC estimates, 25% of all road deaths across

the EU are alcohol-related=>if this is correct ETSC estimates that 6500 deaths would have been prevented in 2010 if all drivers had obeyed the law on drink driving

• Each Member State has its own way of attributing a road

death to drink driving

• In 2010, 7 countries attributed fewer than 6% while 5

countries attributed more than 30%

Drink driving deaths in 22 countries

Relative developments in road deaths attributed to drink driving and in other road deaths in 22 EU countries

40 50 60 70 80 90 100 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 Deaths attributed to alcohol Other road deaths

Measuring progress against drink driving

• General measures to reduce deaths on the roads

have an effect on drink driving deaths as well

• Measures to particularly tackle drink driving

should make deaths attributed to drink driving fall faster than other road deaths

• So ETSC’s chosen indicator of progress over the

years in tackling drink driving is the Difference between the average annual percentage reduction in deaths attributed to drink driving and the corresponding percentage reduction in other deaths

• 30%
• 20%
• 10%

0% 10% 20% EU22 average -1.4%

Progress against drink driving

Difference between the average annual percentage reduction in deaths attributed to drink driving from 2001 to 2010 and the corresponding percentage reduction for other deaths

* 2004-2007 **2006-2010 †2001-2008 Ireland Slovakia Latvia Bulgaria Hungary Cyprus Italy Israel Portugal

• 25%
• 20%
• 15%
• 10%
• 5%

0% 5% 10% EU22 average -7.6%

Reduction in drink driving deaths

Average annual percentage change in the number of road deaths attributed to drink driving from 2001 to 2010

* 2004-2007 **2006-2010 †2001-2008

Enforcement: checks per 1000 population

Country Checks per 1000 population Percentage above legal limit

FI 429 0.9% NO 367 0.2% SE 287 0.6% CY 217 5.3% SI 198 4.7% FR 173 3.4% EL 161 2.1% IE 126 1.9% AT 122 3.7% IL 122 1.0% HU 120 3.6% ES 114 1.8% PT 106 3.8% EE 105 0.7% PL 88 4.9% LT 40 1.7% DK 36 6.7% IT 27 2.5% GB 14 11.6%

Positive checks per 1000 population

Country Positive checks per 1000 population Country Positive checks per 1000 population

CY 11.6 LV 1.9 SI 9.3 SE 1.8 FR 6.0 DK 1.8 BE 5.0 RO 1.7 AT 4.5 GB 1.6 PL 4.3 IL 1.2 HU 4.3 SK 1.2 PT 4.1 LT 1.1 FI 3.9 NO 0.9 EL 3.1 CZ 0.8 BG 3.0 EE 0.7 IE 2.4 IT 0.7 ES 2.0

Alcohol-related work of ETSC

Safe & Sober Campaign (supported by the VOLVO Group)

• Improving local, regional and national policies for the prevention of

Drink Driving in commercial transport;

• Addressing measures relating to education; enforcement and

engineering;

• Promoting alcohol interlocks.

Drink-driving Policy Network (supported by DIAGEO)

• Targeting young and novice drivers
• Improving national policies for the prevention of Drink Driving
• Identifying and promoting best practice

Alcohol Interlock barometer

Sweden

Recidivist drivers

• First law introducing a nationwide pilot

programme approved in 1998

• Two years (including treatment

for alcohol problems)

• Costs borne by the driver ( US$

5,750)

• 13% of convicted drunk drivers

joined the programme and half completed it successfully

• New legislation expected by the end
• f the year applying to all drink driving
• ffenders: 2 years for high risk groups

(recidivists and > 1.0 BAC) and 1 year for the others.

Commercial drivers

• Started in 1999 with a taxi company, a

bus comapny and a trucking company.

• As of 2003 many municipalities started

installing alcolocks in their vehicles

• The Swedish Government committed to

have 75% of governmental vehicles equipped with an alcolock by 2012

• The Government also plans to broaden

requirements to school buses and vehicles for urban transport

Finland

• First EU country to legislate on alcolocks (July 2008)
• Approximately 60% of detected drunk drivers’ BAC limit is over 1.2

g/l

• Time period decided by the Courts (at least one year but not more

than 3 years)

• The programme is associated to rehabilitation with regular visits to

health professionals

• Costs (€ 100-160 per month) are born by the drivers
• Medium term plan to introduce alcolocks for all public

transport vehicles

France

• France is the only EU country in which alcohol is the

main factor in accidents ahead of speeding

• First pilot project in 2004in the Haute Savoie region
• Offenders with BAC of 0.8 to 1.6 g/l
• Six months and € 1,260
• Four to five lower rate of recidivism
• Extended to 4 other French regions in December 2008
• New legislation (for recidivist and first time offenders)

currently being discussed

• All new buses carrying children to be equipped with

alcolocks as of September 2010 and the existing fleet to be retrofitted progressively.

Other EU countries

• In the Netherlands a bill on the alcohol interlock programme passed

by the Senate in June 2010: the legislation is currently under implementation

• In Denmark the Ministry of Justice has issued a proposal aiming to

introduce an alcolock programme for first time offenders (over 2.0 g/l) and recidivist drivers (over 1.2 g/l). High level of public support (> 73% of the population in favour)

• In Belgium new legislation entered into force as of October 2010 for

all drink driving offenders (the implementation legislation is still pending). The decision rests on the judge and the alcolock is set at a lower limit (0.2 g/l) than the legal limit (0.5 g/l).

• In the UK the Road Safety Bill introduced a pilot rahabilitation

programme for drink driving offenders. A coach company fitted alcolocks to its entire fleet (approximately 500 vehicles) in February 2010.

To know more….

ETSC Newsletter to monitor drink driving safety policy developments in the EU

www.etsc.eu

ETSC recommendations to the EU

• Propose a Directive setting a zero tolerance for

drink driving for commercial and novice drivers

• Encourage Member States to prepare national

enforcement plans with targets including drink driving

• Work towards standardised definitions of

drink-driving and alcohol-related collisions

• Introduce uniform standards for alcohol interlocks

in the EU and help all Member States to introduce them

• Introduce alcohol interlocks firstly for repeat offenders

and professional drivers and in due course in non-intrusive form for all vehicles

Recommendations to Member States

• Consider adopting a zero tolerance for drink driving
• Intensify enforcement of laws by setting minimum

targets for alcohol checks of the driving population

(e.g. one driver in 5 should be checked each year)

• Introduce systematic breath-testing in all Police

checks related to driving or collisions

• Introduce rehabilitation programmes and higher

penalties to address recidivism

• Organise regular nationwide campaigns raising

awareness of drink-driving risk

• Develop the use of alcohol interlocks in rehabilitation

Thank you for your attention