Minor roads shouldn’t be left unattended by the police when surveying drink-driving and extensive surveillance is needed during nighttime. These are the main conclusions of a VTI study concerning where and when alcohol-related traffic accidents occur. The results of the study show that the proportion of alcohol-related fatal accidents of all accidents is about the same on urban and rural roads. Moreover, the proportion of alcohol related accidents is larger on ordinary roads, i.e. two-lane single carriageway with no central reservation, than on other road types on rural state roads. Within the ordinary roads, alcohol-related accidents are more common on roads with speed limit 60—70 km/h than on roads with speed limit 80-100 km/h and more common on second-class and third-class county roads than on other road categories. A similar pattern is seen in the results for severe accidents, but the differences with respect to speed classes and road categories are not as pronounced as for fatal accidents. The results also show that 52 per cent of the alcohol related fatal accidents occur between 10 pm and 7 am and that the accident risk is considerably higher during the night than during the day. Drivers under the age of 25 are found in 53 per cent of all alcohol related fatal accidents during the night but only in 14 per cent during the morning and 10 per cent during the afternoon. The researchers also found that the distribution of drug related fatal accidents on different parts of the road network is more similar to the distribution of accidents with sober drivers than to the distribution of alcohol related accidents. (Author/publisher) This report may be accessed by Internet users at http://www.vti.se/en/publications/analysis-of-drink-driving-accidents--…
Samenvatting