Drink driving policy and road safety in the Netherlands: a retrospective analysis

In 1970, SWOV started periodic nationwide roadside surveys aimed at assessing the BAC distribution of Dutch motorists during weekend nights. The goal of these surveys was to get an insight in drink driving patterns, thus enabling policy makers to take drink driving countermeasures and to evaluate their effects. Between 1970 and 2000, the percentage of drivers with an illegal BAC (> 0.5 g/l) dropped from 15% to 4.5%. The most important factor of influence was deemed to be the introduction of random breath testing in the mid-1980s. Also, a recent case-control study indicated that approximately 25% of serious road injuries in the Netherlands was associated with the use of alcohol. Drivers with a BAC above 1.3 g/l, who formed only 0.3% of all drivers and 20% of drivers with an illegal BAC, caused more than 80% of these injuries. Young male drivers, aged 18-24 years, were another high-risk group. While forming less than 5% of the Dutch population, they caused nearly a quarter of all alcohol-related serious road injuries. Existing legislation and programs were neither very effective in further decreasing the number of hardcore drinking drivers nor in improving the drink driving habits of young males. Therefore, the Dutch Ministry of Transport is preparing to introduce a 0.2 g/l BAC-limit for novice drivers and alcolock (alcohol interlocks) programs for hardcore drinking drivers. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.