Transport Safety Dinner: Preventing drink driving amongst young and novice drivers

Robert Gifford welcomed the panelists and the audience and introduced the first speaker, Jean Pascal Assailly. In his presentation Mr. Assailly showed what motivates young people to drink and drive and what steps can be taken to address this. He highlighted the increasing problem of binge-drinking across Europe and different drinking habits between young men and women. In his opinion particularly two measures could help to tackle the problem: first of all, formal control should be increased. According to Assailly this includes a special alcohol policy with measures such as lowering the BAC limits to maximum 0.2 g/l for young novice drivers. Secondly, he stressed the importance of informal measures such as the social conditions and environment under which youngsters are growing up including crucially the family. He also stressed the importance of scientifically-led evaluation campaigns.

The next speaker, Johan Chiers, focused on what special efforts can be made in working with young people to prevent drink driving. He also highlighted social factors influencing drink driving. According to him, the social pressure is crucial to reach youngsters. Therefore he underlined the importance ofdesignated driver programmes and stressed the importance of positive communication to achieve long lasting effect of communication activities. He also highlighted the importance of gender differentiation: 95% of girls respect the commitment not to drink once they have decided to be BOB; for boys this figure drops to 75%. Finally, Mr. Chiers recommended the introduction of drink driving education in the driving education and to focus communication activities on times and places when young drivers are at risk, such as nighttime and weekends.

Bill Georges pointed out in his presentation that also the drinks industry has a role to play to tackle the problem. He showed how the industry can work together with organisations or the police, to set up designated driver programmes or enforcement strategies. He also explained Diageo's work in the US in educating judges on drink driving. He finally highlighted the fact that the industry should not only recommend responsible drinking but also responsible decision-making, i.e. to decide to not drink at all.

The next speaker, Patric Derweduwen, showed the Belgian experiences with the BOB designated driver programme. He showed that in Belgium about 10% of all road accidents with dead or injured are due to excessive alcohol use. According to him the 1995 founded BOB campaign has been a success ever since. Nonetheless, he stressed that it is crucial to use an integrated approach by communication and enforcement. He pointed out the crucial element of the campaign using a positive approach by communicating that "Bob is the hero of the evening". This has led to widespread awareness amongst the population about the campaign: 96% of Belgians know about BOB.

Ad Hellemons pointed out that young drivers are not big drinkers, but the combination of alcohol and little experience when driving leads to a large number of accidents. The crucial point is to start education among young people well before they start to drive. He also stressed the need to engage young people (including also young Police Officers) in developing communication campaigns and talk to them in "their" language. He raised the increasingly worrying development of more drug driving and the need for more police controls. Ad also highlighted the need to think about the people who were saved through anti drink driving measures. But also the fact that if one person dies at least 100 of their friends and family are affected. Finally, concerning enforcement, he said that specifically targeting young drivers is very difficult when implementing enforcement initiatives as it is difficult for Police officers to identify young drivers from the roadside.

Michael Hübel stated that drink driving is one of the most harmful alcohol-related actions. The objective of the European Commission has to be to "make things happen". In that sense, the European Commission intends to implement a triple strategy: developing a common approach shared by all the departments of the EC, co-operating with Member States to harmonise their strategies towards alcohol, and co-operating with civil society in initiatives such as European Alcohol Forum. The final aim is to generate new action in alcohol-related topics.

During the following debate the question was raised whether there is the possibility to set up a common BAC for the whole EU. Michael Hübel remarked that in Western European countries the BAC level is almost harmonised (0.5). What is really important is to have Member States integrated in a networking so as a horizontal approach through alcohol can be set up. Ad Hellemons for his part considered that different BAC levels go against enforcement initiatives because they can harm the argumentation inherent to any legal measure.

Concerning the question whether a Zero BAC limit for the whole EU would be an option, Ad Hellemons, Johan Chiers and Jean-Pascal Assailly agreed that even this is the ideal option, in the short term it will not be possible because of the lack of social acceptance. For all of them it is more important go step by step, harmonising the level at 0.5, enforcing it and trying to reach a common 0.2 in around two decades.

In the last question, one member of Responsible Young Drivers made a petition to all the attendants to pay more attention to drug driving which is becoming more of a problem and it is still difficult to detect and to face.

Finally, each speaker had the opportunity to highlight one single aspect on drink driving among young people. Michael Hübel insisted in reinforcing social consideration of drink driving as an unacceptable behaviour, while Ad Hellemons considered that being positive we should think on what we can do. For his part Patrick Derweduwen, insisted on the importance of the own behaviour and Bill George remarked the importance of scientific based knowledge on causes and consequences of drink driving. Finally, Johan Chiers, wanted to stress the reduction of drink driving among youngsters and Jean-Pascal Assailly insisted on the importance of paying attention to drug driving.

Professor Herman De Croo concluded the meeting thanking all the attendants for their participation.