Response: RoSPA react to new measures for drink and drug driving
The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) has welcomed new measures to tackle drink and drug driving released this week by the Department of Transport, however, in addition to the streamlined procedures, the closure of loopholes to make it easier to conduct breath tests at the roadside and in police stations, improved testing equipment and more robust drink-drive rehabilitation schemes already announced, the safety charity would like to see a reduced legal alcohol limit from the current 80mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood to 50mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood.
Duncan Vernon, road safety manager at RoSPA, said: “RoSPA welcomes the announcement of new measures to crack down on drink and drug driving. We have long called for it to be easier for the police to catch those driving above the legal alcohol limit or under the influence of drugs, and the new testing equipment and improved procedures will go a long way towards this. As well as enabling offenders to be caught, we hope these measures will also deter people from the anti-social and dangerous practices of drink and drug driving.
“We would still like to see a lower drink-drive limit, as recommended by the North Report. Long-standing research has estimated that lowering the limit to 50mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood would save 65 lives a year on Great Britain’s roads and more recent research has suggested that the casualty savings could be even greater – perhaps as many as 168 fewer deaths in the first year following the change. Lowering the limit would back up road safety messages about how and why driving under the influence of alcohol is dangerous and would help to encourage people not to drink any alcohol before driving.”
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