It is estimated that 3-4% of journeys by car involve drivers with a blood alcohol of 0.5 g/L or more, but these drivers cause 15 to 40% of the traffic accidents with severe injury. Different studies have shown that the alcohol-related accident risk is equal to that for sober drivers up to 0.4 g/L. For drivers at BACs around 1.5 g/L, the accident risk is about 25 times as high as it is for sober drivers (Krueger et al 1995). The percentage of drivers who have alcohol above the legal limit varies greatly between studies. The Belgian Toxicology and Trauma Study was set up to determine the prevalence of positive alcohol and drug findings in injured drivers, the nature and the severity of the injuries and the relation between these findings. (A)
Samenvatting