Driving under the influence of alcohol during the COVID-19 pandemic.

aimThe main objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the pattern of alcohol use in drivers. MATERIALS: and methods. At the National Institute of Legal Medicine from Bucharest, we performed a retrospective study on toxicology reports between January 1st

resultsThe distribution of the number of cases depending on the month showed a sharp decline in the first six months of the lockdown, with a slow upward trend afterward. Mean overall values for BrAC were 0.49 +/- 0.40 mg/L, for 1st sample BAC - 1.15 +/- 0.99 g/L and for 2nd sample BAC - 1.29 +/- 0.81 g/L. Mean values obtained for BrAC were 0.48 +/- 0.39 mg/L before the pandemic and 0.52 +/- 0.43 mg/L during the pandemic. The increase was similar in absolute numbers in both male and female drivers (0.03 versus 0.04 mg/L respectively for BrAC and 0.02 g/L for both genders for 1st sample BAC). However, the percentage increase was significantly higher in women. There were 253 cases in which BrAC had values between 0.01 and 0.05, of which 138 occurred before the pandemic and 115 during the pandemic, the increase being highly statistically significant. The percentage of drivers with BAC levels below and above 0.8 g/L (the threshold value for which DUI is a felony in Romania) were similar before and during the pandemic.

conclusionsDuring the lockdown, the number of alcohol tests in traffic has decreased significantly. This reduction was not associated with statistically significant changes in BrAC or BAC. We have seen a substantial increase in the number of minimally elevated BrAC and negative BAC cases, changes that could be caused by an increased use of alcohol-based hand sanitizers.