Filtern
Erscheinungsjahr
- 2013 (3) (entfernen)
Dokumenttyp
Volltext vorhanden
- nein (3) (entfernen)
Schlagworte
- Europe (3) (entfernen)
Institut
- Abteilung Verhalten und Sicherheit im Verkehr (3) (entfernen)
The DRUID expert consensus established recommendations on how to define limits for psychoactive substance use in traffic. The European DRUID project established a group of experts who are members of national working groups for defining analytical and/or risk thresholds. This group evaluated the results of DRUID, scientific literature and the experience of representatives of several EU Member States and Norway in determining cut-off levels. 1. Cut-offs should be defined for the most frequently used psychoactive substances; 2. In order to achieve compliance of the population towards cut-off regulations, they should be clear and comprehensible, pointing out the risks when used in traffic; 3. Thus, the definition of cut-offs should be based on current scientific knowledge; 4. The lowest substance concentration exerting an effect on driving should be preferred instead of the lowest limit of quantification/ detection; 5. For all psychoactive substances including alcohol, the same risk should be accepted. When a country intends to determine per se cut-off levels, several considerations have to be taken into account. From a scientific point of view, the same risk should be anticipated for all psychoactive substances including alcohol. Nevertheless, every cut-off discussion should address the question if the DRUID approach, to determine risk thresholds equivalent to alcohol limits, is feasible for the respective case.
The 6th RFP project DRUID aimed at supporting European transport policy makers by suggesting scientifically based recommendations to combat impaired driving. The main DRUID objectives were: 1. In-depth analysis of the problem situation with regard to DUI/DUID in Europe; 2. Assessment of prevalence and accident risks of DUI/DUID on the basis of epidemiological and experimental studies; 3. Evaluation of oral fluid screening devices and cost-benefit analysis of a strengthened drug driving enforcement; 4. Development of a classification system for medicines; 5. Evaluation of driver rehabilitation schemes and strategies of licence revocation; 6. Assessment of the effectiveness of new prescribing and dispensing guidelines for medicines; 7. Ddevelopment of policy recommendations on the basis of DRUID results. All in all, the DRUID results revealed that prevalence of psychoactive substance consumption, DUI/DUID, enforcement levels and legal strategies are very heterogeneous in European countries. Nonetheless, DRUID derives general recommendations as base for national solutions.
Trauma management (TM) covers two types of medical treatment: the initial one provided by Emergency Medical Services (EMS) and a further one provided by permanent medical facilities. There is a consensus in the professional literature that to reduce the severity and the number of road crash victims, the TM system should provide rapid and adequate initial care of injury, combined with sufficient further treatment at a hospital or trauma centre. Recognizing the important role of TM for reducing road crash injury outcome, it was decided, within the EU funded SafetyNet project, to develop road safety performance indicators (SPIs) which would characterize the level of TM systems" performance in European countries and enable country comparisons. The concept of TM SPIs was developed based on a literature study of performance indicators in TM, a survey of available practices in Europe and data availability examinations. A set of TM SPIs was introduced including 14 indicators which characterize five issues such as: availability of EMS stations; availability and composition of EMS medical staff; availability and composition of EMS transportation units; characteristics of the EMS response time, and availability of trauma beds in permanent medical facilities. Basic information on the TM systems was collected in close cooperation with the national expert group. A dataset with TM SPIs for 21 countries was created. It was demonstrated that the countries can be compared using selected TM SPIs. Moreover, a more general comparison of the TM systems' performance in the countries is possible, using multiple ranking and statistical weighting techniques. By both methods, final estimates were received enabling the recognition of groups of countries with similar levels of the TM system's performance. The results of various trials were consistent as to the recognition of countries with high or low level of the TM systems" performance, where in grouping countries with intermediate levels of the TM system's performance some differences were observed. The SafetyNet project's practice demonstrated that data collection for estimating TM SPIs is not an easy task but is realizable for the majority of countries. The TM SPIs" message is currently limited to the availability of trauma care services. Further development of the TM SPIs should focus on characteristics of actual treatment supplied, based on combined police and medical road crash related databases.