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1. Introduction
Alcohol use is a major risk factor for road traffic crashes worldwide. According to the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2015 update, 0.33 million road traffic deaths can be attributed to alcohol use globally in 2015 [1]. In China, about 30% of road traffic deaths, or 93,750 fatalities, were ascribed to drunk-driving in 2015 [1].
As a cost-effective intervention [2], implementation of drunk-driving law was included by the United Nations in the list of recommended interventions for member countries in The Global Plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020 [3,4]. In China, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress amended the Road Traffic Safety Law of the People’s Republic of China in 2011 to enhance the penalties for drunk-driving [5,6]. At that point, drunk driving became a criminal offence, with severe punishments issued depending on the severity of the crime [7,8]. Specifically, when drivers are detected having a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.02 to 0.08 g/100 mL, they are charged with drink driving and their license will be suspended for 5 years. When a driver is detected having a BAC > 0.08 g/100 mL, drunk driving is charged. Drunk driving is deemed as a crime in China and may cause imprisonment and suspension of a driving license for 10 years. In the case of a fatal traffic crash and a drunk driving charge, driving licenses may be suspended for life [5,8].
Timely and rigorous evaluative studies are critical to monitor the effectiveness of implementation of drunk-driving law, but few publications are available [9]. No published studies in English or Chinese examine the effectiveness of the implementation of drunk-driving law in China. Thus, we sought to accomplish this goal by examining data from two open access data sources, the GBD 2015 update and Chinese police data, that provide estimates of road traffic morbidity and mortality attributable to alcohol use for China. Multiple data sources offer stronger evidence than a single data source if they agree with each other. In this present study, therefore, we used both data sources to assess the effectiveness of drunk-driving law implementation in China. We hypothesized there might be sharp decreases in alcohol-related traffic injuries following implementation of the more severe drunk-driving law in China...