Recent Developments in Preventing Drinking and Driving in Germany

The convictions for DWI since the year 1988 are continuously increasing. In the year 1992 140,000 driver licences were withdrawn for DWI 6.6 percent more than in 1991. 36 percent of them are drivers between 21 and 30 tears, 8 percent are women. The accident involvement of DWI decreased in the FRG in the last two decades from 14 to 9 percent, the amount of injured DWI diminished from 15 to 10 percent. An adverse development is observed in the new Bundesländer (former GDR) since 1990 -there the alcohol accidents increased from 9 to 15 percent and the injured DWI from 8 to 16 percent. Recent results of polls proved, that the public opinion increasingly turns against DWI. Regional road block tests during the last two years demonstrated, that 3 percent of the drivers exceeded the legal limit of .08 BAC. But on the other hand the low enforcement and sanction rate of DWI is well known in Germany: only 2 percent of DWI are detected and punished or convicted. Recent in-depth studies and motivational analysis came to the result, that enforcement strategies and sanctioning systems should be integrated in a wider concept of long termed information campaigns and educational programs. Some examples of those German approaches in the fields of general prevention of the public as well as of individual improvement of DWI by screening systems and rehabilitation programs are given. In recent evaluation studies the well established and integrated system of medico-psychological assessment together with rehabilitations programs for DWI were proved significantly effective in decreasing the recidivism rate of some 45,000 program participants per year in Germany. TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS DUE TO DRIVING WHILE INTOXICATED (DWI) During the last two decades, the accidents due to DWI have decreased from 14 to 9 % of the total traffic accident occurence in the Federal Republic of Germany (Federal Statistical Office, 1993). The proportion of casualties from DWI accidents diminished from 15 to 10 %, the DWIrelated fatalities from 22 to 19 % (Table 1). An opposite development has been observed in the new federal states (former GDR) since 1990: here, the traffic accidents caused by alcohol increased from 9 to 15 %, the DWI-related casualties from 8 to 16 % and the fatalities from 15 to 21 % (Table 2). This means that the proportion of DWI car drivers and motorcylists involved in casualty accidents never had been as low as in 1992 in the former FRG, whereas it reached its highest level in the former GDR. Fortunately, the global accident figures in the new federal