The Role of Alcohol in Traffic Accidents in Hungary (1991-2000)

The role of alcohol consumption in traffic accidents were investigated based on the statistical data of Hungary and autopsy data of the Department of Forensic Medicien, University of Szeged. The number of the drunken fatally injured victims was constant, the rate of the drunken victims increased in this period. The frequency of alcohol intoxication did not play a role in the decreasing of the frequency of traffic accidents during the decade. Introduction Alcohol consumption is a major public health and traffic problem in Hungary. Alcohol consumption per capita varies between 10.5 and 11.2 litres of absolute alcohol/year and in recent years it shows a slightly declining trend. The number of alcoholics is estimated around 5-800 thousand, which makes 5 to 8% of the entire population. But according to other surveys, 35-40% of the male population regularly consumes alcoholic drinks of considerable quantity on a daily basis. Drunken driving and accidents due to drunken driving is quite frequent. Drinking is one of the main causes of accidents despite the fact that the law forbids driving after drinking. Surveys conducted in the past years indicate that drunken driving and accidents caused by drunken driving are on the decrease world-wide, which may be connected to the decrease in the number of accidents. The overwhelmingly high number of accidents in Central Europe including Hungary as well in the early 1990s has decreased in recent years and at the same time the number of fatal road accidents also decreased. In the present report we examined how drunken driving and accidents caused by drunken driving worked out between 1991 and 2000 according to the various surveys and what role it may have played in the number of accidents. Material and Method During the survey three different databases were compared: the number of observed drunken driving and accidents caused by drunken driving and their ratios. 1. The publications of the Hungarian Central Statistical Office (KSH) include accidents accompanied by personal injuries in time and place. The database relies on the forms filled in by the police following the accidents, and which