Alcohol and Road Traffic
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X6203500603 |
| Published date | 01 November 1962 |
| Author | J. D. J. Havard |
| Date | 01 November 1962 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
J.
D.
J.
HAVARD,
M.A.,
LL.B.,
M.B.,
B.Chir.,
Barrister-at-Law
Assistant Secretary
of
the British Medical Association
Dr. Havard was Secretary
of
the Third International Conference on
Alcohol and Road Traffic. The following article summarizes the
proceedings. A basic guide to the new Road Traffic
Act
begins on
page 407.
Alcohol
and
Road
TraOie
THE THIRD INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE on Alcohol and Road Traffic
was held at B.M.A. House, London, from September 3 to 7, under the
patronage
of
H.R.H. the Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh. The
Minister of Transport, the Rt. Hon. Ernest Marples, M.P., opened
the conference as its President. Delegates from more than 22 coun-
tries attended the conference which was divided into plenary sessions,
sections, and working parties. Previous conferences had been held in
Stockholm (1950) and Toronto (1953) but the long gap since the last
conference was held ensured that much new material was available.
Problems
of
communication, which beset so many international
conferences, were alleviated by simultaneous interpretation into
English, French and German, and by the publication before the
conference
of
summaries of all papers which were to be read,
translated into the three languages.
The Relation of Alcohol to Road Accidents
The most important task of the conference was,
of
course, to
establish the relationship of alcohol to road traffic casualties. Here
the most important advance was the reports of adequately controlled
statistical surveys on the blood alcohol concentrations
of
persons
held to be responsible for accidents. The opening paper by Dr. W.
Haddon of New York provided a masterly survey
of
the most
recent series which have been carried out, and which show con-
vincingly that alcohol is a factor in the causation
of
traffic accidents,
whether taken by drivers or by pedestrians. The evidence now points
to the fact that it is not
the"
social"
drinker so much as
the"
patho-
logical"
drinker who is responsible for most of the accidents caused
by alcohol. This is an important point as the
"pathological"
drinker is necessarilyimmune to many
of
the measures of prevention
such as advertisment and public education. Other papers, notably
by Dr. Selzer of the United States and Dr. Glatt
of
the United
November-December 1962 374
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