[Limitations in medico-legal appraisal of sobriety or alcohol intoxication in drivers and the use of retrospective calculation. Practical comments based on an analysis of the files investigated in the chair of forensic medicine, Medical University of Silesia, Katowice, in the years 2000-2004].

In case of a driver who was involved in and survived a traffic accident, the analysis of expired air or blond sampling for alcohol determination is usually done within a shorter or longer time interval after the event. Thus, that the obtained analytical results are to be referred to the time when the examination or sampling was done, whereas the courts are interested in the driver's sobriety of alcohol intoxication at the critical moment, i.e. at the moment of the accident. Knowledge of alcohol toxicology allows for performing some simplified calculations to determine estimated blood alcohol concentration levels similar to those at the critical moment by using the so-called retrospective analysis. The authors performed a statistical analysis of the court files investigated at the Chair of Forensic Medicine, Medical University of Silesia, Katowice, in the years 2000-2004, especially focusing on difficulties encountered in cases of alcohol intoxication in perpetrators of traffic collisions. Language: pl