DfT consultation on drink driving ends 27th February

Those who want to see the drink drive limit reduced have until 27th February to respond to the Department of Transport's consultation on road safety compliance.  Last year the Chief Medical Officer called for a zero limit for under 20s, and the Scottish Parliament recently voted in support of a cut from 80 to 50mg  per 100ml of blood.  However, road safety minister Jim Fiztpatrick (left) has said he isn't keen on lowering the limit, preferring to enforce the existing one better.

From the executive summary of the consultation document:

"We believe that effective enforcement is the key to tackling drink driving. We will work to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the enforcement process, by developing targeted checkpoint enforcement and through the introduction of evidential breath-testing equipment. At the same time, we propose to make it easier for the police to enforce drink driving by seeking a legislative opportunity to remove the option for a blood or urine test, now rendered unnecessary by the proven reliability of the breath test, and look at ways to improve our High Risk Offenders scheme to ensure that these offenders complete medical examinations before they are allowed to start driving again."

"There have been calls for some years for a lower limit of 50 mg/100 ml, or less. We have said that we will keep the limit under review.  A change in the prescribed limit would be a significant change of strategy.  We want to have solid evidence on how many deaths and injuries could be avoided by a new limit, and we want to understand the wider social implications of a lower limit.  We are therefore asking respondents to say:

• what priority they think should be given to a change in the prescribed alcohol limit for driving
• what evidence they are able to offer – and what further evidence do they consider should be obtained – to support a fullyconsidered decision whether or not to change the limit."

"We are working to improve our evidence base. The current introduction of digital breath-testers will provide detailed, accurate and timely data on the characteristics of drink drivers. We will combine this with a new roadside survey of drinking and driving in 2009. This research will support future policy and publicity on drink driving."

Further reading

• Background on the government's thinking from Timesonline here.
• Institute of Alcohol Studies Factsheet Drinking and driving
• ACPO report of Christmas 2008 drink drive enforcement campaign here
  

Comments

[drink driving]

drink driving should not be tolerated at all.

[Peter O'Loughlin]

One would have thought that the universal evidence from other countries would have been sufficient to have a zero tolerance policy to drink driving.

If, as some evidence suggests that smoking whilst driving is dangerous, then given that the brain is the first organ to be attacked by alcohol,with the subsequent impairment of judgement, why should we tolerate drink driving?