Despite the continuous decline since 1980 in the percentages of injuries and fatalities caused by intoxicated participation in traffic, the figures were still so high at the end of the 80s that the main survey carried out in 1979180 of attitudes, orientations and patterns of behaviour connected directly or indirectly with the problem area of drinking and driving was repeated in the old Länder in 1990 (representative popular survey of 3,000 persons). In view of the reunification of the two German states and the different social systems which existed at that time in the west and east with correspondingly different norm and value orientations including different blood alcohol concentration limits, a representative popular survey - similar to that in the west - was in 1990 carried out for the first in the east of Germany (5,000 persons surveyed). The data were updated in 1995 through surveys covering several topics which were carried out in the east (1,000 persons questioned) and in the west (2,000 persons questioned). The present social science investigation represents attitudes, orientations and patterns of behaviour over a period of 15 years and evaluates these in an east-west comparison taking into consideration the variance in patterns of orientation and behaviour shaped by the different forms of society. The study therefore provides a fundamental contribution towards being better able to estimate the possibilities and limits of intended alterations in nonconformist behaviour in the problem area of drinking and driving. In the west the influencing variables which were of decisive significance in determining the behaviour in the drinking and driving conflict in 1979/80 were seen to still apply. The main factors which continue to influence behaviour regarding the drink-drive conflict are consequently - in addition to sex normative orientations (acceptance of the rule of law or demand that it is tightened, evaluation of the danger of journeys under the influence of alcohol and tolerance / intolerance of an excessive consumption of alcohol). This so-called western model (categories regression) was seen to not apply to the east of Germany in 1990. In the east, drink-drive behaviour was determined mainly - apart from by sex - by orientations towards the rule of law, i.e. instead of the moral evaluation of excessive alcoholic consumption, a central role in the East in determining whether someone drives while intoxicated or not is played by the estimation of the amount of alcohol which the individual believes to be able to drink without driver fitness being impaired as well as by the corresponding variables ascertained in the west. An examination using the updated data from 1995 showed that the structures of influence in east and west still differed, even though there were indications of a tendency to adapt to a large extent to the conditions prevalent in the west. Both in the west and in the east, only those drivers who strongly support a lower blood alcohol concentration limit than is at present in force will with a high degree of probability not drive while under the influence of alcohol. In other words, anyone who accepts the 80mg/100ml limit acts as is accepted by the law - he drives while under the influence of alcohol and sometimes then commits an offence against the rule of law. This is increased in the west when excessive consumption of alcohol is tolerated. In contrast, the inclination in the east to drive while intoxicated is increased particularly when drivers put the amount of alcohol, which they believe they are able to drink without their fitness to drive being impaired, at more than 2 glasses of beer or % litre of wine. However, there are also adaptations to the west in this area; different measures are therefore superfluous. The results of this investigation and of comparable studies in other countries indicate rather that a decisive reduction in nonconformist behaviour in the conflict area of drinking and driving is probably only possible through a reduction of the 80mg/100ml limit (together with the introduction of breathalyser tests). This is supported by the fact that the vast majority of the population and of drivers in the east and even over half of car drivers in the west are in favour of a tighter rule of law. The 50mg/100ml limit was also introduced on 1 May 1998. The original version of the research report contains an extensive appendix (questionnaires and tables), which has not been reproduced here; a copy can, however, be requested from BASt. The references to the appendix have therefore been retained in this publication. (Author/publisher)
Abstract