Serious alcohol offenders in traffic; Extent of the problem and characteristics of the offenders. Worldwide driving under the influence of alcohol is a large and persistent problem for road safety. This also applies to the Netherlands: in the last decades driving under the influence has decreased, but recent data shows that driving under the influence of much alcohol still leads to approximately 75 to 140 road deaths in the Netherlands. About two-thirds of all severe alcohol crashes are caused by the relatively small group of serious alcohol offenders (offenders with a blood alcohol content of 1.3 g/l or higher). The social costs due to this group are estimated between 0.8 to 1.8 billion euros per year. For the group serious alcohol offenders, the alcohol interlock programme was a measure that showed promising results. Traditional measures, such as fines and driving disqualifications, proved to have little or no effect on heavy alcohol violations. Now that the alcohol interlock programme is discontinued in the Netherlands, a new effective and efficient alternative must be found. In this report we make an inventory of available knowledge about the backgrounds and characteristics of serious and habitual alcohol offenders. The persistent nature of the problem of driving under the influence is the direct reason for this study. In addition, the recent developments concerning the alcohol interlock measure and the decrease of road safety in 2015 were also reason to investigate the factors that may lead to remaining possibilities for an effective approach to serious alcohol offenders. For this study the following research questions were formulated: 1. How many drivers in the Netherlands participate in traffic with a blood alcohol level that is much too high? 2. What is known about the characteristics that distinguish serious/habitual alcohol offenders from the drivers' population as a whole? 3. What is known about the characteristics that distinguish between individual serious/habitual alcohol offenders and which of these characteristics can be of use when profiling of serious alcohol offenders in traffic?
Abstract