November 1, 1984, marked the tenth anniversary of the coming into effect of the present alcohol section of the Dutch Traffic Act (`1 November 1974 Wet') along with statistics of the past decade, a consideration is made of the practibility of the legislation, and the experiences of some of the authorities involved, i.e. police, forensic laboratory and magistracy. Financial implications are also taken into account, though it is difficult to express a complete cost/gain analysis. As far as legal evidence is concerned, the `November First Law' was a success: the reliability of the prescribed procedures and chemical analyses has seldom been challenged in court. the net effect on traffic safety seems to have greatly diminished in the course of ten years.
Abstract