KNOW YOUR RIGHTS
LOWERING THE DRINK DRIVE LIMITS
The Road Traffic Act 1988 (Alcohol Limits) (Amendment) Bill is awaiting second reading in the House of Lords. If the bill becomes law, it will reduce the breath limit from the current 35ug of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath to just 14.
However, this is a ‘Private Members Bill’, proposed by Lord Brooke of Alverthorpe (Labour) and at the moment it doesn’t look like it has enough support to succeed. In the current sys- tem most bills (proposals for new laws or amendments to current ones) are government bills, introduced by government MPs. Private Members bills are put forward by backbenchers, members of opposition parties or independents.
But does Lord Brooke have a point? Does the limit need to be lowered?
In November he wrote: “Since 2015, matters have got worse rather than better, particularly in the last two years. The figures plateaued between 2015 and 2018, but we saw some serious injuries and deaths in 2019 - a total of 2,050. A total of 230 people died, up from 200 in 2015…there was also an increase of 8% in seriously injured casualties compared to 2018
“This country had a very good record in the last century. We led most of Europe. We trailblazed in addressing injuries and deaths on the road and all the aspects of them. However, over the years our leadership has started to diminish. This is in part because we have been unwilling to change.
“We have ended up here, where we see that the rest of Europe is at [30] or below, with some as low as [10], and only two countries - England and Wales and Malta - have retained the figure of [35]. The question is: have we done the right thing?
“Why do these countries have lower limits? It is because all the evidence shows that [35] in [breath] increases the risk of a driver’s involvement in a collision, by three times for collisions leading to injuries and by about six times for colli- sions leading to death.”
So would lowering the limits make a big difference in England, Wales and Northern Ireland? Would it reduce deaths and accidents?
It is incredibly difficult (and dangerous) to try to ‘count units’ to work out if you will be over the limit or not. Limits work by measuring body alcohol content i.e. the proportion of alcohol in your body. This is very dependant on your height, weight, sex, and even other variables such as how quickly you have drunk and whether you have eaten.
FEBRUARY 2022
In December 2014 Scotland reduced its drink drive limit from 35 to 22 in breath, making Scottish drink drive laws the toughest in the UK. Initially, Scotland saw a decrease in the number of deaths and injuries, but later reports show that what has been happening there is not quite so encouraging as they first experienced. But, deaths and accidents are still down.
Northern Ireland has already legislated to reduce its limit and the Welsh Government would like to do the same if it had permission. So will England follow suit? Time will tell.
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So there is no straight forward test to work out whether somebody with a reading of 35 in breath would be drunk or sober. Instead, the best way to try to calculate a ‘safe’ limit (if there is one) is to look at trends of alcohol related accidents.
There is evidence from abroad. It has been particularly effec- tive in Australia, where they have followed this practice. Australia had a very bad record on drinking and driving but the introduction of random breath testing has changed it quite dramatically.
And compared with the rest of Europe, the UK has the highest drink drive limits.
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