Countries Included

The primary purpose of this project is to provide comparisons with the United States, and therefore possible guidance in the development and implementation of impaired driving policies in this country. Therefore, the main focus of data collection was on countries that would be considered most directly comparable to the US, economically and demographically, as well as those countries with which we have the most direct dealings. These countries include:

* Members of the European Union, including Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom

* Other western European countries, including Norway and Switzerland

* Canada

* Mexico

* Australia

* New Zealand

* Japan

Other countries of possible interest were included as data were available. These include Brazil, the Czech Republic, and Russia.

Laws Included

While many different laws are relevant to impaired driving, this project focused on several of the most important laws. These laws include:

* Illegal blood alcohol content (BAC) levels for various classes of drivers;

* The minimum purchase age for alcohol;

* Age of driving licensure;

* Standard sanctions for first offenses and multiple offenses;

* The imposition of more severe sanctions for drivers with higher BACs

* Graduated licensing systems;

* Systems for the regranting of licenses.

For some countries, of course, laws are not standard nation-wide, but rather vary by state or province. Where this is the case, information about each sub-national entity is reported separately.

Each of these areas of legislation, policy, and practice is discussed below. In addition, Appendix B provides information for each country.

Methodology

Most of the information for this report was gathered through inquiries from key informants identified in each of the countries of interest. Most informants were from government transportation agencies. Some informants were from relevant university departments. In some cased, available information was collected from other published or unpublished sources. Appendix A indicates the source(s) of information for each country.