Law, Alcohol, and Road Safety: Analyzing the Serbian Experience (2010–2024)

Background: To reduce the incidence of road traffic accidents (RTAs), countries worldwide implement various measures: intensified police controls, awareness-raising campaigns, technological solutions such as alcohol interlock systems, and stricter legal sanctions. Methods: The objective of this research is to determine the trend of alcohol-impaired drivers’ involvement during the period 2010–2024, to compare periods before and after the reduction of the permitted blood alcohol concentration limit from 0.3 mg/mL to 0.2 mg/mL, to analyze the distribution of intoxication levels and demographic characteristics, and to determine the severity of traffic accident outcomes. Results: A total of 1,743 drivers under the influence of alcohol were analyzed and divided into two study groups based on the timing of the legislative amendment. The greatest effect of the legislative change was observed in the age group 22–34 years. A significantly higher percentage of very high intoxicated drivers was recorded before the legislative change. The percentage of drivers that were affected after reducing Traffic Safety Law regulations limit from 0.3 mg/mL to 0.2 mg/mL, resulted in increase of the number of low level intoxicated drivers nearly twice after the regulations. Conclusions: The results indicate that stricter legislative regulations contributed to a significant reduction in high-risk behaviours, although the effect was not uniform across all categories of drivers.