Since 1987, the Belgian police forces and the Belgian Road Safety Institute (BRSI) have been joining efforts in organising the year-end campaigns to prevent drink driving. The main objective is to reduce the number of alcohol-related accidents by deterring and preventing drink driving. In 1995 Bob, the person who does not drink when he has to drive, was introduced. Right from the start, this prevention campaign has been a real success. Evaluation based on a comparative study of the alcohol-related accidents and on the breath tests carried out by the police, shows that the problem of drink driving is still present: the number of positive breath tests and the number of accidents are increasing. The main cause of this evolution is the fact that the number of repressive actions (breath tests) seriously decreased. The number of impaired drivers during the year-end campaign is lower than during the rest of the year. This confirms the statement that the combination of repression and prevention is more effective than prevention (or repression) on its own. (Author/publisher) For the covering abstract of the conference see ITRD Abstract No. E201067.
Samenvatting