[Fatal traffic accidents vs. alcohol consumption in the victims in the archival material collected by the Institute of Forensic Medicine, Collegium Medicum, Jagiellonian University in Cracow, in the years 2000- 2003].

The report presents the issue of fatal traffic accidents, emphasizing in particular blood alcohol levels in victims involved in such fatalities. According to data provided by the Central Police Headquarters, in recent years, the annual number of traffic accidents in Poland has been in excess of 50000; of this number, more than 10% have resulted in fatalities. The number of traffic accidents in the Małopolska province has amounted to 5000, and more than 7% of these accidents have been fatal. In the years 2000-2003, at the Department of Forensic Medicine, Collegium Medicum, Jagiellonian University, a total of 884 victims of fatal traffic accidents that occurred in the Cracow region were autopsied. In the group, car drivers accounted for 26%, passengers - for 16%, while the most numerous subgroup, represented by more than 57% of victims, included pedestrians hit by moving vehicles. In the autopsied car drivers, individuals being under the influence of alcohol and intoxicated accounted for 40-42% in the years 2000-2002 (as compared to the total number of investigated subjects); in 2003, the percentage decreased reaching 31%. Among the passengers, the mean percentage of those being under the influence of alcohol and in drunk was slightly higher in this period, ranging between 27 and 57%. However, the highest percentage of victims included individuals under the influence of alcohol, and especially alcohol intoxicated pedestrians hit by moving vehicles, whose number exceeded 50% of the total group of the autopsied corpses.