Trends in drink driving accidents and convictions in Denmark

The objective of this article is to describe the long-term trends in injury accidents involving drink drivers and in drink driving convictions in Denmark. The article also identifies drink drivers' characteristics useful for targeted countermeasures.

Accident-involved drink drivers have been divided into subgroups by age and gender. The database of convicted drivers has been linked to databases with information about age, gender, and various socio-demographic variables, such as education and employment. Per capita rates have been used to describe the changes in the road safety variables and in the criminal convictions variables during the study period.

In the past four decades there has been a sharp reduction in the per capita rate of Danish male drink drivers involved in injury accidents for all age groups, with the slope of the curve significantly lower in recent years. Although this rate reduction is much more marked for male drivers aged 18-24 compared to all other age groups, their rate is still around three times higher than for those aged 25-64. Danish male convicted drink drivers, including those who were involved in accidents, are mainly drivers with only primary school education or workers, unemployed drivers, and drivers who use their car for work.

Strategies against drink driving should bear in mind that a differentiation between men and women and young people and middle-aged people is necessary, that education and occupation play an important role, that drink driving may be related to the workplace, and that enforcement activities towards young drivers should be concentrated on weekends.