The legal concept of driving "under the influence of drink" and the social concept of "high consumer".

A roadside survey of drivers was carried out in France by the Institut National de Recherche sur les Transports et leur Sécurité (INRETS) between February 1984 and February 1986 in an attempt to discover: a) drinking patterns and associated alcoholic states among those who drink before driving and b) whether those who are found in breach of the law are merely 'low' or 'average' drinkers who have accidentally stepped over the legal limit or whether they are 'high drinkers'. The sample analyzed comprised 1074 drinking drivers who fell into 5 categories: Classes 1 and 2 (52%), 'low drinkers', mainly of wine and spirits, never driving over the legal blood alcohol concentration (BAC) limit; Class 3 (21%), young drinkers, mainly drinking beer in public places, 5% of whom drive over the legal limit, and Classes 4 and 5 (27%), which include high social drinkers (in Class 4 5% drive over the legal limit, and in Class 5 13%), 70% frequently drive when far over the legal limit. It is concluded that driving under the influence of alcohol in France is significantly related to occasional states of inebriety (in two thirds of the cases). The other cases of consumption over the legal limit are attributable to heavy drinking (most commonly) or to accidental excess through a mistaken estimate of the legal limit.