Compulsory blood alcohol testing of road crash casualties in Victoria: the second three years (1978-1980)

Since 1974, blood alcohol estimations have been compulsory for all road crash casualties aged 15 years or older presenting at public hospitals in Victoria. This paper details the results of the second sequence of three complete years of testing (1978-1980). Blood samples were obtained from 50712 casualties. There were 41307 of "driver" and 9405 of "non-driver" labelled samples. Of driver and non-driver samples, 20.5% and 17.9% respectively had alcohol levels in excess of the legal driver limit of 11 mmol/L (0.05 g/100 mL). The blood alcohol level exceeded 33 mmol/L (0.15 g/100 mL) in 9.8% of driver and 6.4% of non-driver labelled samples. The legal limit was exceeded by 27.4% of male and 9.2% of female drivers. The percentage of city and country driver casualties who had blood alcohol levels in excess of the legal limit was 18.7% and 25.0%. These results closely resemble those obtained between 1974 and 1977. The differences, while statistically significant, have resulted in less than a 1% decrease in the percentages of drivers and non-drivers with blood alcohol levels in excess of 11 mmol/L (0.05 g/100 mL). The largest annual decrease occurred between 1978 and 1979 and followed increased penalties for drink-driving offences.