Drink driving is among the largest road safety problems in Queensland. This report is the first of a series of reports on Queensland’s drink driving problem. The report is broken into 7 parts. The first part outlines the Committee’s terms of reference, inquiry processes and the background to the Inquiry onto Queenslands Roads Toll. Part 2 considers the effects of alcohol on the driving task. Studies have shown that alcohol adversely effects the ability of drivers to safely control a vehicle and that persons who are under the influence of alcohol are more likely to suffer greater injuries than people who are sober. Research on crash involvement has consistently demonstrated the link between increased blood alcohol concentration (BAC) and increased crash risk. A Norwegian study, for example, found that a driver who has a BAC of 0.15 (three times the maximum legal limit) is 550 times more likely to be involved in an accident than a person who is sober. The Report then goes on to examine the contribution of alcohol to Queensland’s road toll (Part 3) and the drink driving problem in Queensland compared to other Australian states (Part 4). Queensland Transport figures show that in the 10 years between 1986 and 1995, 1,451 people were killed in alcohol related crashes, 6,433 were hospitalised and 4,781 required medical treatment. A conservative estimate of the costs of alcohol related crashes in Queensland during 1995 is $122 million. Over the last 10 years drink driving countermeasures in Queensland have succeeded in reducing the incidence of drink driving and alcohol related crashes. However, most of these gains were made in the late 1980s. From 1990 to 1995 there has been no overall improvement. In contrast to Queensland, the drink driving trends in New South Wales and Victoria, the states that have pursued the most vigorous drink driving campaigns, have not only continued downwards between 1990 and 1995, but continued downwards at a greater rate. The last substantive sections of the report (Parts 5 and 6) briefly outline drink driving compliance and enforcement and examine the Random Breath Testing (RBT) program, the ‘flagship’ of drink driving countermeasures. The intensity of RBT enforcement in Queensland is a major cause for concern. The number of tests per licence holder has dropped substantially from 0.48 tests per licence holder in 1992 to 0.37 tests per licence holder in 1994/1995. These rates are significantly below those now being achieved in New South Wales and Victoria where the test to licence holder ratios are 0.59:1 and 0.83:1 respectively. A recent study has found that there would be substantial road safety benefits if the intensity of RBT enforcement levels was increased while RBT ‘best practice’ is maintained. (Author/publisher)
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