Alcohol harm makes Colombian roads unsafe and deadly
Road users want to be able to move safely, feeling protected from avoidable injuries and deaths when travelling on the roads in their neighbourhoods and cities.
But preventable alcohol harm on Colombian roads puts many people at risk.
WHO data shows that alcohol significantly increases the risk and severity of a road traffic crash and therefore the chance it will result in death and serious injury.
The country profile for Colombia from 2022 shows that alcohol impaired driving is a major cause of road crashes in Colombia. According to police reports 167 persons were killed in an alcohol-related crash, representing 7.7% of all road deaths in 2022 with available information on the cause of the crash. But the report warns that this figure is likely seriously underreported.
It does not have to be this way and the Colombian government has policy tools at their disposal to bring about much-needed change.
Angelica Maria Claro Galvez
The 2023 WHO Global Status Report on Road Safety showed that in low- and middle-income countries, between 33% and 69% of fatally injured drivers and between 8% and 29% of nonfatally injured drivers had consumed alcohol before their crash.
Recently, PROESA estimated road traffic fatalities in Colombia based on the Global Burden of Disease data.
They found that there are 7126 deaths from road crashes of which 2049 are due to alcohol.
Big Alcohol Hijacks Colombia’s Road Safety Agenda
The products and practices of the alcohol industry fuel road traffic crashes and fatalities.
Alcohol companies and their front groups have used and are deploying multiple lobbying and interference strategies to prevent the implementation of effective policy solutions that would help prevent road incidents due to alcohol.
For example, the alcohol industry is using its considerable power to derail, delay or undermine policy proposals that seek to prevent and reduce alcohol impaired driving while presenting itself as a partner in road safety initiatives.
The products and practices of the alcohol industry fuel road traffic crashes and fatalities.”
Angelica Maria Claro Galvez
Various studies and analyses have shown that, instead of being allies, alcohol industry participation in road safety initiatives functions as a strategic manoeuvre to divert attention to ineffective and even counter-productive measures to distract from effective solutions that would threaten alcohol sales and alcohol industry profits by reducing population-level alcohol use and related harms, such as road traffic crashes and fatalities.
In 2022, a landmark study exposed Big Alcohol’s involvement in the road safety agenda. It revealed that the alcohol industry acknowledges that alcohol impaired driving was an issue but that they push for measures that would limit impact on alcohol sales, akin to the message ‘consume alcohol – but don’t drive’.
The researchers expose that alcohol industry actors have been involved in road safety through:
- Coalition coupling and decoupling,
- Information production and management,
- Direct involvement in policymaking, and
- Implementation of interventions.
One example is Big Alcohol’s agenda to promote industry-friendly narratives that shift responsibility to individuals, attempting to maintain a status quo that favours the continuation of high levels of alcohol consumption despite the well-document alcohol industry-backed campaigns have hijacked the road safety ed risks on the roads. These strategies not only delay the adoption of vital policy solutions but also create a flawed public perception that the alcohol industry is committed to road safety when, in reality, its actions hinder the development of effective regulations and fuel harm on the roads.
The alcohol industry’s strategy to infiltrate road safety organisations, both globally and locally, compound the problem, creating conflicts of interest that undermine impartial and evidence-based policy-making. When organisations tasked with advocating for scientifically proven policy solutions are influenced by funding or control from the alcohol industry, the policy discourse gets diluted or skewed in favour of commercial interests, ignoring the public’s interest in safer roads through reducing alcohol consumption in the population.
In 2022, another landmark study exposed the alcohol industry’s strategic involvement with road safety NGOs.
The study revealed a clear effort by the alcohol industry to partner with road safety NGOs around the world.
14 of 256 road safety NGOs from 92 countries had direct and indirect ties with the alcohol industry.
Alcohol industry and road safety NGO partnerships primarily pushed ineffective and scientifically unproven Interventions, such as mass media campaigns, free-ride and ride-sharing campaigns, and educational events where alcoholic or zero-percent alcoholic beverages were sold or provided.
The researchers wrote:
These interventions are largely inconsistent with evidence-based best practice recommendations. Relationships between the alcohol industry and road safety NGOs lacked public transparency on key details such as terms of partnerships and funding amount and terms.”
Stein, I., Bachani, A.M. & Hoe, C. The alcohol industry’s involvement with road safety NGOs. Global Health 18, 18 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12992-022-00813-9
The study underscores the need for the road safety community to generate consensus on safeguards against alcohol industry involvement. It also highlights the important role of local and national governments supporting road safety initiatives and road safety NGOs to avoid dependence on harmful and counter-productive funding from the alcohol industry.
In 2018, an ambitious study examined alcohol industry corporate social responsibility (CSR) actions that Big Alcohol had identified themselves as their “contribution” to reducing the alcohol burden across six global geographic regions.
The findings are shocking and important in the area of road safety:
- Only 27% of alcohol industry CSR actions conformed to recommended WHO target areas for global action to prevent and reduce alcohol harm.
- The overwhelming majority (96.8%) of alcohol industry actions lacked scientific support.
- 11.0% of alcohol industry CSR activities had the potential for doing harm.
The benefits accruing to the industry (‘doing well’) included brand marketing and the use of CSR to manage risk and achieve strategic goals.
Research findings highlight the urgent need to increase recognition of alcohol industry interference and conflicts of interest, as well as awareness about the involvement of the alcohol industry in road safety. There is also a need to build a cohesive transnational alcohol policy advocacy alliance to curb injuries and deaths related to alcohol impaired driving.
These examples, cases, and research results clearly illustrate that the alcohol industry is not a genuine partner in the initiative to achieve safer roads. Its lobbying activities, strategic communication efforts, and deliberate actions to sabotage the road safety coalition are designed to preserve its market share, even if this means compromising the health and well-being of people and communities.
Big Alcohol Has Captured the Colombian Road Safety Community
Unfortunately, Colombia is one of the countries where Big Alcohol has managed to capture the road safety community and distorted the road safety agenda.
Several cases stand out and are reason for serious concern:
Business Committee for Road Safety
The Road Safety Business Committee is made up of 100 companies and is in turn made up of a Strategic Committee that includes Argos, Auteco, Automóvil Club de Colombia FIA, Bavaria, Defencarga, RENAULT-Sofasa, Renting Bancolombia and SURAMERICANA S.A.
News about this Committee is even published on the Federal government’s website: Road Safety Business Committee focussed on the care of cyclists.
Bavaria is the lagest beer producer in Colombia and belongs to the biggest bber giant in the world, Anheuser-Busch InBev.
Grand Pact for Road Safety in Colombia
Bavaria boasts that it has endorsed and signed the “grand pact for road safety in Colombia“. The facts of alcohol’s death toll in our roads that I shared above, tell the story of how hollow this pact and the engagement of the beer giant is.
Bavaria has a market share of … in beer consumption in Colombia.
Diageo Exploits Road Safety With Key Alliances
Diageo – one of the world’s largest liquor producers – announced it would join forces with the Directorate of Transit and Transport (DITRA) and the Confeorg association, to continue scaling the programs that the company has in the field of prevention with its programs “En Contravia” and “DrinkIQ”.
“En Contravía” is an online learning platform developed by Diageo and the United Nations Institute for Vocational Training and Research (UNITAR) with the aim of raising awareness about road safety and the effects and consequences of driving under the influence of alcohol.
“En Contravía” and “DrinkIQ” are typical alcohol industry initiatives that distract from evidence-based actions, shift the blame for alcohol harm to individuals, and help Diageo in promoting their brands and their image as “good corporate citizen” – which they leverage to interfere evidence-based against alcohol policy making.
Movendi International lead a global coalition of civil society and community-based organization to express concern about UNITAR partnering with Big Alcohol.
UNITAR is clearly captured by Big Alcohol. Instead of terminating their partnership with AB InBev, they have expanded the partnerships with the alcohol industry and now also work with another Big Alcohol giant: Pernod Ricard.
BEAT and Diageo join forces to promote road safety and “responsible” consumption
The headline gives Big Alcohol’s playbook away: they are promoting alcohol use. It is a clear example of harmful initiatives with misleading messaging. Colombia has a road safety law that regulates the allowed blood alcohol concentration level according to WHO and international standards.
But the Diageo and BEAT partnership sabotages that by confusing Colombians about how much alcohol would be “problematic” in the context of road traffic.
Global Road Safety Partnership Brief on the Alcohol Industry
In March 2021, the Global Road Safety Partnership, hosted by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, published a brief on the alcohol industry. The findings of their evidence review support our analysis above:
A review of the literature reveals that there is significant investment by the alcohol industry in activities that are claimed to be part of the industry’s corporate social responsibility initiatives.
However the majority of initiatives supported by the alcohol industry are not evidence-based and do not reduce alcohol-related harm.
Most initiatives claimed under the banner of corporate social responsibility serve as marketing opportunities for the alcohol industry in order to maximise profit.”
Global Road Safety Partnership, 2021
The brief also addresses the direct and fundamental conflict of interest that the alcohol industry has, in public health as well as in road safety.
The commercial activities of the alcohol industry are in direct contradiction to those of the public health and road safety community.
Global Road Safety Partnership, 2021
Reviews of the most effective and cost-effective strategies to prevent and reduce alcohol harm, including alcohol impaired driving, find that alcohol taxes are the most effective but these policy solutions are also the ones that the alcohol industry is most likely to oppose.
The commercial activities of the alcohol industry are in contradiction to those of the road safety community. The alcohol industry is not a legitimate actor in road safety because its objectives are in direct conflict with the evidence-based objectives of the road safety community.
The alcohol industry is not a legitimate actor in road safety because its objectives are in direct conflict with the evidence-based objectives of the road safety community.”
Global Road Safety Partnership, 2021
It does not have to be this way and the Colombian government has policy tools at their disposal to bring about much-needed change.
Alcohol Policy Solutions For Advancing the Road Safety Agenda
The solution to this challenge lies in adopting cost-effective, scientifically proven and politically sustainable public policy solutions free from conflicts of interest.
Population-level alcohol consumption is a key factor influencing alcohol-impaired driving rates in a given population. The higher the alcohol consumption in a population, the higher is the number of alcohol impaired drivers. A larger proportion of the population consuming alcohol particularly in high-risk patterns – such as binge alcohol consumption – increases the probability of alcohol impaired drivers on the road. Studies consistently show that a high prevalence of heavy episodic alcohol use correlates with increased alcohol impaired driving incidents.
In 2022, the WHO released the “Drink Driving – A Road Safety Manual for Decision-Makers and Practitioners” to help countries prevent alcohol impaired driving. The manual provides advice, and recommendations for legislation and interventions to reduce alcohol-impaired driving. It is aimed at policy makers and road safety practitioners.
This manual provides an overview of the evidence status regarding different interventions to tackle alcohol-impaired driving. It shows that public education are not programs such as designated driver programs have insufficient evidence for the effectiveness, and that public awareness campaigns (alone) are not effective in reducing and preventing alcohol-impaired driving.
But the manual also shows that the government has a host of evidence-based and highly effective measures at their disposal to prevent and reduce road traffic crashes and fatalities.
Limit availability and affordability of alcohol: Measures such as increasing taxes on alcohol, regulation of alcohol points of sale, density of locations of sale, and minimum age for purchase and consumption of alcohol are effective in reducing the level of harm caused by alcohol, including alcohol impaired driving.
In combination with legislation that follows international standards in setting blood alcohol concentration limits as well as penalties that reflect the seriousness of the offence, plus comprehensive enforcement, these strategies of the WHO SAFER alcohol policy blue print hold substantial potential for improving public health and public safety.
The alcohol policy best buys, such as raising taxes, setting an alcohol floor price, and limiting alcohol availability, are also important to raise government funds to be able to afford proper enforcement, especially through random breath testing and sobriety check-points.
Alcohol taxation is important for the government to have the resources to invest in road safety initiatives and road safety NGOs to avoid dependence on harmful and counter-productive funding from the alcohol industry.
Focusing on strategies that effectively lower alcohol consumption at the population level is key.
Another key, according to WHO and other experts, is to develop measures against alcohol impaired driving free from conflicts of interest and protect from the influence of alcohol companies and their front groups.
Recent experiences have shown that when political solutions are implemented based on evidence and with commitment to public health and safety, significant improvements in road safety can be achieved.
Ultimately, the vision of safer roads is only achievable when priority is given to sound political solutions. The evidence is clear: interference from the alcohol industry has repeatedly hindered progress in road safety, and its interests are incompatible with the goal of reducing road accidents due to alcohol. When the government commits to effective public policies free from conflicts of interest, it is betting on a future in which all roads are safer and the well-being of people and communities is truly prioritized.
For further reading
World Health Organization SAFER package: “Advance and enforce alcohol impaired driving counter measures“
World Health Organization: “Global status report on road safety 2023“
Movendi International: “World Bank Report: Alcohol Fuels Road Traffic Crashes in Malawi“
World Bank press release: “Speeding, Driving Under the Influence of Alcohol Common Among Drivers in Vientiane, Road Safety Survey Finds”
U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: “What Works: Strategies to Prevent Alcohol-Impaired Driving“
