[Automobile drivers in the "drinking and driving" conflict: behavior pattern and influence factors]

The question of how to encourage "normal" drivers to modify either their alcohol consumption or the use of their cars formed the starting point of a representative survey undertaken by the Federal Highway Research Institute (Kretschmer-Bäumel, Karstedt-Henke 1986). The following variables were identified as having a decisive influence on the drinking and driving conflict and its solution: Attitude to the legal BAC limit of 80 mg/100 ml, evaluation of the risk arising from drinking and driving, evaluation of excessive alcohol consumption, and sex of the driver. Attitudes of the legal norm and its intended results which are relevant to behaviour, as well as the wide-spread acceptance of a lower BAC limit of 50 mg/100 ml or 0 mg/100 ml, together form the basis for new measures. A reduction in the numbers of alcohol-related accidents seems most likely to result from a lowering of the current legal BAC limit.