Effect of Criminalization of Drink-Driving on Road Traffic Mortality in China
To evaluate the national effect of CDD on reducing road traffic mortality, we analyzed crude road traffic mortality rates data collected between 2006 and 2016 through China's National Disease Surveillance System. Linear regression models were fit with the pre-CDD data (2006-2011) and used to predict mortality rates in the post-CDD years (2012-2016). It is estimated that the new law was associated with 317,197 (95% CI: 280,425~353,968) lives saved in the entire country in the first 5-years of the new law. Similar reduction in mortality rates was observed in both urban and rural areas. The decline in non-occupants was more prominent and occurred earlier than that in occupants, among whom the road traffic mortality rate did not show a statistically significant reduction in the first 4 years of the new law. Our study shows that CDD is particularly effective in protecting non-occupants and is equally effective in both rural and urban areas in China.