WRITTEN QUESTION E-1565/01

by Ewa Hedkvist Petersen (PSE) to the Commission

(29 May 2001)

Subject: Inaccurate statistics on alcohol-related accidents

The fact that drinking and driving causes a large number of serious accidents every year is nothing new. The question is whether we know the extent to which alcohol is actually involved in accidents. A Commission report on alcohol, drugs and road safety shows that in Italy, for example, only 1 % of accidents are alcohol-related, whereas in France the figure is 40 %. These differences are hardly plausible and depend on which system the individual countries use to keep statistics. In Germany, for example, whose own statistics record 20 % of all accidents as alcohol-related, no tests are carried out in accidents involving a single vehicle. That type of accident normally accounts for the highest number of alcohol-related fatalities, which would imply that the hidden statistics are very high in Germany. The problem with inaccurate statistics is that decision-makers do not have a realistic basis for their decisions. There is then a risk that the necessary measures to combat drink-driving are not taken.

The official figures in Sweden do not reflect the reality particularly well either. Autopsies are performed on almost 90 % of drivers who die in road accidents, during which samples of body fluids are taken and then sent for analysis to the National Board of Forensic Medicine. When the data on fatal accidents is correlated with the results of the analyses, the finding is that 19 % of Swedish drivers who died in accidents in 1999 had alcohol in their bodies. The official statistics for that year put the figure at 5,6 %! The reality, therefore, is three times the figure given in the official statistics. We must also understand that not even that 19 % is a true reflection of reality since some of those casualties survived the accident for a time, during which any alcohol may have dissipated.

One reason for the faulty statistics in Sweden is that the official accident figures are based on police accident reports. The possible influence of alcohol as a factor in the accident is based on police suspicion that there was. In an accident, the police's main task is to prevent injury to anyone else and priority is therefore given to the other traffic, which means that they very frequently fail to test the driver's alcohol level.

What measures will the Commission take to remedy such statistical inaccuracies in the EU?

Answer given by Mrs de Palacio on behalf of the Commission

(17 July 2001)

Compiling accident statistics is a prerequisite for any effective road safety policy.

The Council therefore decided in 1993 to set up the European CARE database(1) on road accidents involving personal injury. It is made up of data submitted annually by the Member States on the basis of statements by the police officers working first-hand at accident scenes. Obviously, the police's prime concern is to organise the emergency assistance and ensure the safety of other road users before dealing with such administrative tasks as filling out statistical information forms. Forms generally give police the option of indicating the probable cause of an accident. It is not however possible for the police officer to take a blood sample from a person killed in an accident or an accident victim being taken to hospital. Consequently, for many cases of serious personal injury the blood alcohol level is not recorded in the national records and so is not included in the CARE database(2). The Commission is perfectly aware of the shortcomings described by the Honourable Member.

The Commission has taken various forms of action to remedy the situation. It has, for instance, initiated the CARE Plus project jointly with the Member States with a view to adopting standard terminology and rules for the conversion of national data for input into the CARE database. The rules for data on alcohol will come into force in the second half of 2001. Even so, the methodological problems will not be solved immediately, and it goes without saying that the Commission will refrain from using any aggregate data while there is still doubt as to its reliability.

In addition, under the fourth Community framework programme for research and technological development, the Commission has supported the Stairs project commissioned to standardise methods for in-depth accident inquiries to be carried out by multidisciplinary teams at the accident scene and in liaison with hospitals and the law in order to identify in detail the causes of accidents and responsibility for them. The conclusions of the Stairs project should be put into practice. A limited number (given the high cost) of detailed enquiries will be sufficient to round out the information provided by the statistics. They will give a qualitative appreciation which will shed light on the quantitative analysis provided by the CARE database.

In the long term, the Commission also intends to encourage Member States to set up systems to enable independent enquiries to be carried out in order to have the most accurate analysis possible of the causes of accidents from which to draw operational conclusions.

Improving the CARE database is a long-term project. It is one of the operations which will be developed in the Community road safety programme planned for 2002 to 2010 in order to provide the Community with a valid road safety information system.

(1) Council Decision 93/704/EC of 30 November 1993 on the creation of a Community database on road accidents (OJ L 329, 30.12.1993).

(2) See Commission Recommendation of 17 January 2001 on the maximum permitted blood alcohol content (BAC) for drivers of motorised vehicles (OJ C 48, 14.2.2001).