Omicidio e lesioni personali da incidenti della strada in stato di ebbrezza e di alterazione psico-fisica. Criticità e problematiche. Considerazioni medico-legali

Abstract

Road traffic crashes are a main cause of physical harm and mortality. That means a heavy burden in terms of short, medium and long-term disability and public costs for society. Among the most relevant cases of severe accidents is driving under the influence of alcohol and psychoactive drugs. That’s the reason of the international strong effort to combating the phenomenon.
In Italy the draft law concerning the criminal offence of vehicular homicide and road traffic personal injuries is currently being discussed. Previously the law n. 120/2010 has already changed the regulation in matter of drink-driving and driving under the influence of controlled substances with stiffer penalties for transgressors and (at least some) guidance as to assess the infringement.
The draft law suggests that clinical and toxicological evidences of actual driving impairment has to be proved to reach significance in court, nevertheless no standard and effective procedure has being established for detection, at least for what concerns controlled substances.
The purpose of this article is to put in evidence, in accordance with a medico-legal perspective, some of the issues that emerge from this complex matter (i.e. the need of a list of the impairing substance under detection, of well-defined legal cut-off values, of a better definition of the problems following the therapeutic use of drugs of abuse and other concerns), issues, those, that are now more troubling whereas the introduction of new crimes and punishments is becoming more concrete.