Drink Driving Limit - Should it Be reduced

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Should the Drink Driving Limit be reduced

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Deleted member 15344

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Another thread was talking about golf clubs drinking and it was starting to merge into a thread about the limits for drink driving

For me its clear - the less alcohol in your system whilst in charge of a car is better - i would actually prefer to have the lowest possible limit to reduce as much as possible the chances of a drink driver causing harm - i have in the past lost two friends and seen one workmate paralysed due to drink drivers.

I dont see any negatives in reducing the limit that outweighs everyones safety .

Yes there the obvious policing issues and trying to enforce it which are imo a different issue

So the question is - should the limit be reduced - if yes down to what and if no why
 
Liverpoolphil said:
Another thread was talking about golf clubs drinking and it was starting to merge into a thread about the limits for drink driving

For me its clear - the less alcohol in your system whilst in charge of a car is better - i would actually prefer to have the lowest possible limit to reduce as much as possible the chances of a drink driver causing harm - i have in the past lost two friends and seen one workmate paralysed due to drink drivers.

I dont see any negatives in reducing the limit that outweighs everyones safety .

Yes there the obvious policing issues and trying to enforce it which are imo a different issue

So the question is - should the limit be reduced - if yes down to what and if no why
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I assume this is an England/Wales only subject.

Yes, you should follow Scotland/Europe's example.

Before the Scottish law was changed I would occasionally have a second drink at home thinking I would probably still be legal for driving in an emergency.
I don't do that now.
 
Pretty much zero tolerance in Scotland, I don’t bother having a drink playing golf or after when driving.
If I’m playing on a Friday we normally get a taxi, so will have a couple of drams.
You have to watch the morning after as well.
 
The only safe way personally is zero, but that makes me a hypocrite as I’ll have a pint & drive now. Won’t do 2 anymore though, I might be safe/might not, I can’t risk it.
How does zero tolerance deal with the day after? & medication etc?
 
The alcohol free beers available usually have 0.5% in them so I don’t think it should be absolute zero. I think this should be reflected in the limit. If you drink these options then you will blow something above zero.

Get 50 average people to drink 5 of these over 3 hours. Take a reading and use the mean reading plus 10% and make that the number.
 
Liverpoolphil said:
- i have in the past lost two friends and seen one workmate paralysed due to drink drivers.
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I'm willing to bet they were all caused by people over the current limit which negates the argument that reducing the limit further will make things significantly safer. Increased detection would be a better deterrent. What's wrong with random checks outside pubs & clubs? If you're innocent you've nothing to fear. I'm certain that a number of our members drive home over the limit. A police car outside the gates would be a sobering (not literally!) reminder.

The trouble with a zero limit is how do we know when all the alcohol has left our system? What about cough medicine? A reduction may be appropriate but not zero.

The statistics are not available, I'm sure but to say "accidents are caused by people over the limit so let's reduce the limit" doesn't make sense.
 
therod said:
The only safe way personally is zero, but that makes me a hypocrite as I’ll have a pint & drive now. Won’t do 2 anymore though, I might be safe/might not, I can’t risk it.
How does zero tolerance deal with the day after? & medication etc?
Click to expand...

I dont think it can be a zero limit- there will always be some very minimal limit of alcohol in the body. I would prefer to have the limit at a level where its not zero but you cant have one pint or even one unit
 
Liverpoolphil said:
I dont think it can be a zero limit- there will always be some very minimal limit of alcohol in the body. I would prefer to have the limit at a level where its not zero but you cant have one pint or even one unit
Click to expand...

Maybe the Scottish way is the future....less than 1 pint? Trailblazers them Scottish!
 
Captainron said:
The alcohol free beers available usually have 0.5% in them so I don’t think it should be absolute zero. I think this should be reflected in the limit. If you drink these options then you will blow something above zero.

Get 50 average people to drink 5 of these over 3 hours. Take a reading and use the mean reading plus 10% and make that the number.
Click to expand...

For a joke my SIL once served up a champagne trifle which was deadly, got TT Lady Doon quite tipsy.
So, not just drinks.
 
I'd go with the Scottish limit. That allows for the sherry trifle, white wine sauce etc but not two pints or the large glasses of wine that many women now have like lemonade. Some of the old fashioned comments on the other thread have shocked me.
 
It can never be zero, there are medications that can cause false positives as well as some chemicals.

How much Police time would be wasted by people appealing and going through the mill?

Also some medications contain alcohol.

What is the justification for reducing it? Have we seen an increase in drink driving?
Personally believe we’d be better off leaving the level were it is and go after the drug drivers.
 
Liverpoolphil said:
I dont think it can be a zero limit- there will always be some very minimal limit of alcohol in the body. I would prefer to have the limit at a level where its not zero but you cant have one pint or even one unit
Click to expand...

In theory yes.
But not sure it’s that simple.
If a 16st man as 1pint with a 3 course meal it’s totally different to a 9st man with an empty stomach having 1pint.
 
Justification for reducing it in my eyes is too many people are riding on the edge or beyond the current one. "Two pints, fine, I can take my beer, I'm big, I can take three pints." The Scottish figure makes the situation very clear, one beer max, many not even chancing that now.
 
i attend more car crashes from elderly people not being aware than drunk driving, drug driving and careless driving combined.
 
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