P.16 Speeding, failure to wear a seat belt and drink driving are the three main risky behaviours on the roads.
The European Commission estimates that across the EU around 25% of all road deaths are alcohol related. Fig.8 shows individual country performance in reducing road deaths attributed to drink driving compared with progress in reducing other road deaths, using each country’s own method of identifying alcohol-related deaths. In more than half of the countries, progress in reducing drink driving has contributed more than its share to overall reductions in deaths.

In Latvia, drink driving deaths were cut by 8% faster than other road deaths each year on average since 2001. In Sweden drink driving deaths fell by around 7% per year faster than other road deaths, in Slovenia by 6% and Hungary by around 5%. In Cyprus, Serbia, the Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia, Finland and Croatia, developments in drink driving deaths have slowed down overall progress in reducing road deaths.

Ireland has recently completed a review of police forensic investigation and coroner files for all fatal collisions occurring between 2008 and 2012, and will be publishing a series of reports on all pre-crash factors, including alcohol and drugs by the end of 2015.

[Background tables (Excel) may be found on the publisher's website - see URL above)