Citation

Grellner W, Heinemann A, Preuss J, Kratochwil M, Cordes O, Georg T, Lignitz E, Wilske J, Puschel K. Blutalkohol 2004; 41(2): 105-116.

Affiliation

Institut fur Rechtsmedizin, Universitat Mainz, 55131 Mainz, Germany

Copyright

(Copyright © 2004, International Committee on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety and Bund gegen Alkohol und Drogen im Straßenverkehr, Publisher Steintor Verlag)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The percentage of elderly people aged 60 years and over is known to permanently increase in the population of industrial countries. Aim of the study was to investigate the alcohol-related traffic delinquency of this age group. By drawing a comparison between three regions of Germany with different structures: the provincial to urban region of the Saarland (SL) in southwest Germany, the metropolitan area of Hamburg (HH) as well as Greifswald (Vorpommern, VP). The alcohol data banks at the institutes of forensic medicine of all three regions were evaluated for the 10-year-interval from 1991 to 2000. The databases comprised 1828 blood alcohol tests of elderly people aged 60 and over in the Saarland (of a total of 40573 samples: 4.5%), 1638 in Hamburg (of a total of 55 642 samples: 2.9%) and 142 tested elderly drivers in Vorpommern (of a total of 6 660 samples, limited to a comparison of the years 1991 and 2000). Among all people over the age of 60 the percentage of women amounted to 6.0% (SL), 9.3% (HH) and 5.8% (VP). There was a clear and significant increase of older offenders in the 10-year-interval investigated: from 3% to 6.5% in SL, from 1.8% to 5% in HH and from 0.9% to 3.2% in VP. With regard to temporal circumstances, senior drivers dominated on working days. Drunken driving of the elderly was mainly detected from 12-24 h. Senior citizens aged 70 years and over were less represented with BAC-values over 2 g/l. In the medical examination, their degree of impairment by alcohol was considered to be stronger than in younger people - even with the same BAC values. This observation could be caused by the expectedly higher percentages of older people with pre-existing diseases and intake of medication. Senior drivers over 60 years were more frequently involved in accidents with material damage and personal injury, hit-and-run offences, accidents with casualties and cases with claims of post-event drinking. In summary, the study underlines the increasing importance of elderly drivers concerning traffic offences under the influence of alcohol. The essential trends during the last decade in a provincial and a metropolitan area in Germany seem to be comparable.