Alcoholic intoxication is commonly considered to be an important cause of occupational accidents. Over a period of one year the alcohol concentration in the breath and/or blood was studied in 5439 patients, who, following an occupational accident, attended the emergency departments of a large Danish provincial city. It is concluded that only a few, apparently less than 3%, were inebriated in the legal sense of the term (BAC above 0.8%) at the time of the accident.