The development of the epidemiology of alcohol, drugs and traffic safety is recorded in the proceedings of the International Conferences convened by the International Council on Alcohol, Drugs and Traffic Safety (ICADTS). This paper is a review of the 25 years following the First International Conference, which was held in Stockholm in 1950. Far more research has been reported in the second 25 years than in the first but it is argued that in its approach to the epidemiology of drinking and driving ICADTS came of age at the Sixth International Conference in Toronto in 1974.