Assessment of the repercussions of introduction of the driving licence with penalty points on the incidence of fatal road accidents : experience of the morgue of Milan to 30 June 2004

The legislation on the new driving licence with penalty points that came into force on 1 july 2003 and aimed at reducing the number of victims of road accidents, is a topic of medicolegal as well as epidemiological interest. from this point of view, a morgue (especially if it covers a wide area, as does that of milan) automatically becomes a good view point for monitoring the efficacy of the reform introduced. With that in mind, the Milan Institute of forensic medicine immediately organised itself for real time monitoring of the new qualitative and quantitative trends in fatal accidents. the aim of this paper is to compare the number of autopsy examinations in the period following the entry into force of the new legislation (1 luglio 2003 to 30 june 2004) with the preceding period (1 july 2002 to 30 june 2003) and check the incidence of deaths by day and at night, and in urban and non urban areas. an analysis was also performed of the chemical and toxicological axaminations, level of blood alcohol and search for narcotic and psychotropic substances.