The role of police enforcement in the decrease of DWI in the Netherlands, 1983-1991.

In the early 1970s, The Netherlands did not limit the alcohol consumption of road users. In late 1974, a legal limit of 0.5pm came into force, the police were given breathalyser equipment to test suspected drivers, and the blood alcohol content (BAC) test was admitted as legal. Some national campaigns against drink-driving were introduced. These measures were very effective for about a year, but most of the improvement did not last. After late 1987, breath testing carrying evidential weight was gradually introduced, and the proportion of drivers found with BAC more than 0.5pm decreased steadily. This is attributed to several specific policy measures from 1984 on, and to the growing popularity of low-alcohol and alcohol-free beers from 1989 on. To discover whether drink-driving can be reduced at a realistic level of police enforcement, the Leyden area was subjected to an enforcement experiment from late 1988 to late 1989. A large-scale enforcement and publicity campaign in the province of North Brabant, conducted from November 1989 to February 1990, was also evaluated. The results showed that intensive random alcohol controls by the police can significantly decrease the alcohol consumption of road users.