SWOV researchers Vissers, Houwing and Wegman published the article 'Recording of alcohol in official crash statistics: underreporting and procedures to improve statistics' in Journal of the Australasian College of Road Safety.
Worldwide 1.25 million people die in road crashes every year and it is widely recognized that drink driving is an important risk-increasing factor. Official statistics of alcohol-related crashes are likely to underestimate alcohol-related crashes and casualties, because official statistics are affected by underreporting.
This study aims to obtain a good insight into the definitions, legislations and reporting procedures of alcohol-related road casualties to reach an accurate estimate of the drink driving problem and recommendations on how to improve the reliability and comparability of official statistics.
