In the first major review of drink and drug driving law since 1976, a Government advisor has recommended that the current drink-drive limit is to be reduced from 80mg/100ml to 50mg/100ml and that there should be a step-by-step assault on drug-driving.
Drawing on new research by the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), Sir Peter North estimates that hundreds of lives could be saved annually by reducing the blood alcohol limit to 50 mg/100ml, as well as thousands of injuries that could be avoided.
NICE estimates that as many as 168 lives could be saved in the first year of a reduced limit, rising to as many as 303 lives saved by the 6th year following any change in the law. Sir Peter also recommends maintaining the current 12-month mandatory driving ban at the lower limit.
A total of 51 recommendations are being made to the Secretary of State for Transport in a bid to reduce drink and drug driving casualties. The most recent statistics showed 430 drink drive deaths and 60 reported 'drug drive' deaths in 2008, but the report stresses that many others are dying as a result of crashes involving drivers impaired by alcohol but below the current limit.
Prescription drugs under scrutiny
While supportive of the Government's don't-drink-and-drive message, Sir Peter is keen to emphasise that a 50mg/100ml limit isn't zero - a driver could still have a drink without infringing the limit. While the Review has identified that many people don't know how much they could actually drink and stay within the legal limit - old or new - differences in people's response to alcohol makes setting drink 'quotas' a difficult, and possibly, risky strategy.
Sir Peter North said yesterday, "Surveys also tell us that the public is in favour of lengthy bans for drink drivers and witnesses have told me that the current ban is the major deterrent to drink driving. I am therefore clear that the 12-month ban needs to be maintained at a 50 mg/100ml limit."
The Review also assesses Great Britain's less well-understood drug-driving problem, challenging the lack of reliable statistics, out-dated research and police emphasis on drink driving detection. In the short term, Sir Peter North recommends that police procedures enforcing current drug driving laws are improved, making it more straightforward for police to identify and prosecute drug drivers by allowing nurses, as well as doctors, to authorise blood tests of suspects. Medium-term, he recommends early approval of saliva testing of drug driving suspects in police stations, which will largely overcome the environmental problems in roadside use that had previously slowed technological development of so-called 'drugalysers'.
On the question of a new law setting banned drug levels, Sir Peter said "The focus should be on public safety. Any new offence should therefore focus on establishing levels of drugs in the blood at which significant impairment - and therefore, risk to public safety - can be reasonably assumed, as is the case now for drink-driving".
Responding to concerns from patients and healthcare professionals that people taking medicines would be banned from driving, Sir Peter stresses that this is not his intention. Instead, he highlights that although medicines can be as impairing to driving as illegal drugs, there is an important opportunity for the relevant parties to work together to improve public awareness and the driving patient's safety.
The IAM (Institute of Advanced Motorists), the UK's largest independent road safety charity, has already welcomed the proposal of a new lower drink drive limit, but stresses that enforcement will be the key factor that determines its success.
Commenting on the findings of the North review, released today, IAM Director of Policy and Research Neil Greig said: "Authorities should be aware that, should it pass into law, a new limit will make little difference to casualty figures without proper enforcement. Already stretched front line police may end up pursuing lower risk drivers, leaving less time to catch those who blatantly ignore any limit.
"A lower limit will hopefully make many more drivers think twice about drinking at all before getting behind the wheel. Drivers will also be more likely to get caught the morning after, but only if sufficient police are out there enforcing the law.
"Many repeat offenders think they're invincible, and ultimately it is fear of being caught that will eradicate drink driving rather than stronger penalties."
