The number of reported drink-driving offences in Sweden has increased in recent years (1999—2005). Discussions are going on about tightening up the legislation against drink-driving and other serious traffic offences that cause many fatalities and injuries every year. The project aims to substantiate to what extent differences exist between drunk and sober drivers as regards the penalties for traffic offences that result in traffic accidents where people are killed or injured. The study is limited to road traffic accidents in Sweden where sentences were passed between 1990 and 2005. No published research and literature have been found that deal with comparisons between the categories “drunk behind the wheel” and “not drunk behind the wheel” as regards punishment for a principal offence of “causing another person’s death” or “causing bodily harm or illness”. The analysis is based on data from a matching between the register of legal proceedings and the register of road accidents. The matching was done by Statistics Sweden (SCB). The study is based on the register of legal proceedings. In all, there are 1,995 people between the ages of 18 and 64 who have been prosecuted for carelessness in traffic offence as the principal charge. The analysis studies principal charge, principal sentence and principal penalty. The categories “drunk behind the wheel” and “not drunk behind the wheel” are also compared. What is not analysed in the present study is whether differences exist in the meting out of a penalty linked to gender and age. Other factors that might be of interest to relate to the penalty meted out might include people born in Sweden and abroad, income, region, etc. (Author/publisher) This report may be accessed by Internet users at http://www.vti.se/EPiBrowser/Publikationer%20-%20English/R710Eng.pdf
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