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Re: Alcohol and drugs with driving

Dear Editor,

I have read the article by Pileggi et al. [1] and have following disagreement with the author.

Firstly, The authors have not studied whether the drivers under their study have taken alcohol or psychoactive drugs or not. Drinking and driving causes more accidents and fatalities [2,3]. It is also seen that injury severity score increases with increasing alcohol level [4]. In Spain, alcohol was detected in 50.5% fatalities [2] and in another study, drugs were found in 19% of fatalities and it was seen that alcohol was the main causative factor conducive to fatal road traffic accidents [3]. It would have been better if the authors have tried to correlate the level of urgent care with drinking and drug use.

Secondly, I don't agree with the statement "we do not expect a high number of fatal accidents in this area." I don't think there are less fatal accidents where at least 424 accidents incur within 10 months' duration and the drivers visit one hospital [1]. The authors have not given the previous data of deaths due to accidents to prove their statement.

References

1. Pileggi C, Nicotera G, Angelillo IF. Attendance at a hospital emergency department by drivers involved in automobile accidents in Italy. Emerg Med J 2005;22: 246-250.

2. del Rio MC, Alvarez FJ. Alcohol use among fatally injured drivers in Spain. Forens Sci Int 1999; 104:117-125.

3. Seymour A, Oliver JS. Role of drugs and alcohol in impaired drivers and fatally injured drivers in the Strathclyde police region of Scotland, 1995-1998. Forens Sci Int 1999; 103: 89-100.