Despite the substantial decline in drink-driving and road traffic casualties in England and Wales, the number of drivers involved in fatal or non-fatal casualties attributable to alcohol remains high. Up to now, the legal limit for drink driving is set at 80 mg/100 ml in England and Wales, whereas the European Commission recommends a drink-drive limit of 50 mg/100 ml blood alcohol content (BAC) for experienced drivers and 20 mg/100 ml for novice drivers. In this context, discussions are taking place to consider lowering the current BAC limit from 80 mg/100ml to 50 mg/100ml for all drivers in England and Wales and maybe a further reduction for young drivers. A systematic review was conducted as part of this project to identify evidence about the profile of drink-drivers in England and Wales, the relationship between BAC and the risk of casualty, and the effectiveness of different policy options aimed at reducing drink-driving. The systematic review indicated that there is sufficiently strong evidence to support the assertion that laws lowering the legal limit for BAC for drivers are effective in reducing road traffic injuries and deaths in certain contexts. Albalate indicated that lowering the legal limit from 80 mg/100 ml to 50 mg/100 ml in Europe was associated with a reduction in fatal casualties ranging between 3.3% and 7.4% using different regression models and controlling as far as possible for confounding factors. (Author/publisher)
Abstract