The Crime of Vehicular Homicide in Italy: Trends in Alcohol and Drug Use in Fatal Road Accidents in Lazio Region from 2018 to 2024.

IF 3.9 3区环境科学与生态学 Q2 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES

Toxics Pub Date : 2025-07-19 DOI:10.3390/toxics13070607

Francesca Vernich, Leonardo Romani, Federico Mineo, Giulio Mannocchi, Lucrezia Stefani, Margherita Pallocci, Luigi Tonino Marsella, Michele Treglia, Roberta Tittarelli

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Abstract

In Italy, the law on road homicide (Law no. 41/2016) introduced specific provisions for drivers who cause severe injuries or death to a person due to the violation of the Highway Code. The use of alcohol or drugs while driving constitutes an aggravating circumstance of the offence and provides for a tightening of penalties. Our study aims to report on the analysis performed on blood samples collected between January 2018 and December 2024 from drivers convicted of road homicide and who tested positive for alcohol and/or drugs. The majority of the involved subjects were males belonging to the 18-30 and 41-50 age groups. Alcohol, cocaine and cannabinoids were the most detected substances and the most frequent polydrug combination was alcohol and cocaine. We also investigated other influencing factors in road traffic accidents as the day of the week and the time of the day in which fatal road traffic accident occurred, and the time elapsed between the road accident and the collection of biological samples. Our data, in line with the international scenario, strongly support that, in addition to the tightening of penalties, raising awareness plays a key role in preventing alcohol- and drug-related traffic accidents by increasing risk perception and encouraging safer driving behaviors.

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意大利的车辆杀人罪：2018年至2024年拉齐奥地区致命道路事故中酒精和药物使用的趋势。

在意大利，关于道路杀人的法律(法律编号：41/2016)对因违反《公路法规》而致人重伤或死亡的司机作出了具体规定。在驾驶时使用酒精或毒品构成加重犯罪的情节，并规定加重处罚。我们的研究旨在报告对2018年1月至2024年12月期间从被判犯有道路杀人罪且酒精和/或药物检测呈阳性的司机收集的血液样本进行的分析。大多数受试者是18-30岁和41-50岁年龄组的男性。酒精、可卡因和大麻素是检出最多的物质，最常见的多种药物组合是酒精和可卡因。我们还调查了道路交通事故的其他影响因素，如致命道路交通事故发生的星期几和当天的时间，以及道路交通事故与采集生物样本之间的时间间隔。我们的数据与国际情况一致，强烈支持除了加强处罚外，提高认识通过提高风险认识和鼓励更安全的驾驶行为，在预防与酒精和毒品有关的交通事故方面发挥关键作用。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Toxics Chemical Engineering-Chemical Health and Safety

CiteScore

4.50

自引率

10.90%

发文量

681

审稿时长

6 weeks

期刊介绍： Toxics (ISSN 2305-6304) is an international, peer-reviewed, open access journal which provides an advanced forum for studies related to all aspects of toxic chemicals and materials. It publishes reviews, regular research papers, and short communications. Our aim is to encourage scientists to publish their experimental and theoretical results in detail. There is, therefore, no restriction on the maximum length of the papers, although authors should write their papers in a clear and concise way. The full experimental details must be provided so that the results can be reproduced. Electronic files or software regarding the full details of calculations and experimental procedure can be deposited as supplementary material, if it is not possible to publish them along with the text.