Alcohol, drugs, and traffic safety in Australia: Initiatives and indicators

This paper reviews the status of alcohol, drugs and traffic safety in Australia. Australian jurisdictions have made impressive improvements in road safety since the early 1970s. Road fatalities have more than halved, while indicators of road use (population, vehicle registration, driver licensure, vehicle distance driven) have more than doubled. Enforcement and public education campaigns that specifically target drink driving, speeding, and non-use of seat belts have been successful. There has been an extensive shift in attitudes to drink driving in Australia, and success in this area is serving as a valuable guide to changing other undesirable road behaviors. Strategies to tackle drivers impaired by alcohol or other drugs are based on general deterrence and targeted operations. These actions reflect the national road safety strategy and its analogues across the Australian jurisdictions. A recent major initiative introduced in a number of Australian jurisdictions is random roadside drug testing, which supports and extends the previous random breath test (RBT) powers for impaired driving. Police now have powers to: (a) stop drivers at random to test for alcohol and arrest drivers who test over the legal prescribed limit; (b) stop drivers at random to test for specified drugs and issue a traffic notice or court attendance notice if certain prescribed drugs are detected; (c) require a driver to undergo a sobriety test in certain circumstances, and arrest drivers they believe are impaired by drugs for the purpose of blood and urine testing. Random roadside drug testing supports an offence of drive with the presence of any of the following drugs: active THC (cannabis); methylamphetamine (‘speed/ice’); or methylenedioxymethylamphetamine (MDMA or ‘ecstasy’), as determined by testing in oral fluid, blood or urine. As well, the presence of morphine (unless proven for medicinal use) and cocaine in the blood or urine of drivers can also constitute an offence. The usual penalties for drug driving include a substantial fine and loss of drivers license. Other major initiatives to combat impaired driving in Australia in recent years include responsible service of alcohol programs, and the commencement of alcohol ignition interlock programs and interventions targeting repeat drink driving offenders for assessment of alcohol-dependence. Promotion of the use of personal alcohol breathalyzer devices is also occurring. Support for interventions targeting first-time drink driving and drug driving offenders is lagging, however, despite a stated need for more effective partnerships to be built between the road safety and health sectors