Drink Driving Limit - Should it Be reduced

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Should the Drink Driving Limit be reduced

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Is it safer because congestion stops you from getting to a dangerous speed? My average trip back home from the golf course is nose to tail traffic.
 
Here's a Scottish take on the figures;

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/13412785.Drink_driving__police_only_record_positive_breath_tests/

This one's interesting & tends to suggest that the new limit makes very little difference;

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-35371330

And if you look at road fatalities per vehicle km then we are pretty much identical with Sweden and their much safer drink drive limits, and better than Germany, Belgium, France, Austria & Spain (all European, so a much lower drink drive limit than the UK then Phil :thup:) so the current drink drive limit might not be quite as bad as you might have us believe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-related_death_rate

At the risk of repeating the same argument (not that anyone's been doing it in this thread…. :whistle:) there would be nothing wrong with the current limit if it was properly enforced by a proper Traffic Division as compliance with any law of this nature is pretty much directly proportional to the risk of being caught. The vast majority will do their best to comply, the minority who pay it no regard will continue to drink & drive all the time they think they won't be caught.
 
murphthemog said:
Is it safer because congestion stops you from getting to a dangerous speed? My average trip back home from the golf course is nose to tail traffic.
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Congestion creates the issues when gaps appear.

I follow all the highways alerts for all the motorways as I did just under 2000 miles last week and over 2000 miles the week before on our roads, and the majority of serious accidents or those that close motorways and A roads are at peak times in the mornings and afternoons, and there daily!!
 
I’m 0 tolerance. If I am driving that day or the next morning I don’t drink. It’s a simple rule and very easy to stick to.
 
Re the policing of DD I'd like to see the New Zealand approach here and that is they randomly test and one of the ways they do this is by selecting 5 to 6 roads adjacent to each other so me escape and stopping everyone. They are not adverse to doing this after large gatherings, you speak your name into a machine then if it detects alcohol on your breath you are pulled aside to do a proper breath test . They also block off roads first thing in the morning and one day I was stopped twice, at 10 in the morning and 3 in the afternoon, both times in the same town on my milk round .

As for our levels would be happy to see them drop .
 
I would be happy to see some liability placed on the place serving. Not easy in some cases where several venues are concerned but would help clear up the problem in some obvious places like village pubs and sports clubs which, to my mind, have some of the worst offenders.
 
pauldj42 said:
Do you mean the level should be 0?
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No, I don’t know enough to know what level is right.

I police myself as it it’s very close though. Certainly don’t drink if driving the same day. The night before it’s only one and never after 9. If I’m up early to drive then it’s 0.

I bend my own rules a touch but the simple the better really.
 
Whats wrong with the current limit? Is there a problem with people driving within the current limit, if not then leave it alone.
 
ScienceBoy said:
No, I don’t know enough to know what level is right.

I police myself as it it’s very close though. Certainly don’t drink if driving the same day. The night before it’s only one and never after 9. If I’m up early to drive then it’s 0.

I bend my own rules a touch but the simple the better really.
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Cheers, totally agree the best policy is to abstain if you’re in that position.
 
People who drink and drive will still drink and drive regardless of the limit, lowering the limit will have those who may have 1 pint at golf or 1 wine with dinner thinking twice.

The reality is that lowering the limit will not increase anyone’s chances of getting caught because there will be no more police on the roads to spot check people.
 
Val said:
People who drink and drive will still drink and drive regardless of the limit, lowering the limit will have those who may have 1 pint at golf or 1 wine with dinner thinking twice.

The reality is that lowering the limit will not increase anyone’s chances of getting caught because there will be no more police on the roads to spot check people.
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Have to agree Martin, the guys who habitually do it will still do it regardless. These are the people who need to be dealt with and hammered when, i am sure we all know some who do it.
 
Blue in Munich said:
Here's a Scottish take on the figures;

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/13412785.Drink_driving__police_only_record_positive_breath_tests/

This one's interesting & tends to suggest that the new limit makes very little difference;

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-35371330

And if you look at road fatalities per vehicle km then we are pretty much identical with Sweden and their much safer drink drive limits, and better than Germany, Belgium, France, Austria & Spain (all European, so a much lower drink drive limit than the UK then Phil :thup:) so the current drink drive limit might not be quite as bad as you might have us believe.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-related_death_rate

At the risk of repeating the same argument (not that anyone's been doing it in this thread…. :whistle:) there would be nothing wrong with the current limit if it was properly enforced by a proper Traffic Division as compliance with any law of this nature is pretty much directly proportional to the risk of being caught. The vast majority will do their best to comply, the minority who pay it no regard will continue to drink & drive all the time they think they won't be caught.
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One of the things that sticks out is the amount of people who frequent sports clubs - golf, rugby, football , snooker , cricket etc who are against reducing the limit - there was a discussion about it on five live and people concluded it was because they suspect people are more worried about missing out on that second unit that they like to have ? i wonder if this poll follows on the same theory. Someone even suggested that sports clubs would suffer because of reduced drink driving limits - for me that just points to a very weird set of priorities.

Here is a study from the IAS - showing the level of support to reduce the limit

http://www.ias.org.uk/uploads/pdf/IAS summary briefings/lowerlimitbriefing.pdf

Plus the RAC study

https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/news/motoring-news/most-drivers-support-stricter-drink-driving-laws/

Also here is another report about increase in Drink Drive Incidents that result in injury - deaths gone down slightly but other injuries and severe injuries on the increase

http://www.alcoholpolicy.net/2017/10/drink-drive-figures-cause-for-concern-2017.html

So yes better policing will help - but if this is also true Scientific evidence from around the world has agreed that when a person’s alcohol level is over 50mg, their driving is impaired.

Surely a reduction in the limit which is not really that much of a hardship plus better policing then the roads are going to be even safer - or are some people going to miss that second pint too much
 
Interesting how many people on here are mentioning it's not worth reducing the level as the police don't check anyway. We are golfers, the kings of self policing. Should not golfers in particular be good at abstaining when driving as we understand rules and don't need a ref on our shoulder enforcing them?

The drink drive adverts will be starting on the tv soon. It's a great shame that they are failing to hit the mark with so many people.
 
Liverpoolphil said:
Also here is another report about increase in Drink Drive Incidents that result in injury - deaths gone down slightly but other injuries and severe injuries on the increase



So yes better policing will help - but if this is also true Scientific evidence from around the world has agreed that when a person’s alcohol level is over 50mg, their driving is impaired.
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There is a fantastic report put together by the ONS that breaks down the number of accidents caused by DD, the number of injuries caused by DD and the number of deaths caused by DD. It also breaks it down into age groups. The figures go as far back as 1979, right the way up to the most recent set of figures available. And there figures are different to yours.

I prefer the ONS figures because they, unlike some that have specific reports commissioned or who have a vested interest(RAC), produce purely statistical numbers. No fluff, no rubbish conclusions or dodgy recommendations - "could save 300+ lives" when the death rate is already down to 170.

You can shout(in bold) for a reduction as many times as you like but until there is a valid review of the data I'm happy to leave things alone. "50mg, their driving is impaired" is a rubbish statement. Impaired to what? What is an acceptable level. 25mg will have an impact, as will 20mg and 30mg and 40mg. Make it a valid assessment, not a 50mg impairs driving.

I'd love more police out there, and I'd welcome random testing, especially in areas mentioned earlier
 
Lot of assumptions being made that those against the reduction are those that like the 2nd pint.
I’m against the reduction, never been done, never knowingly driven over the limit, not touched a drop in nearly 2 years.
 
I voted “no”
For me, I would rather there be more police out and about to deter those who flout the law, plus any other motoring offence.
I would rather drug driving be more widely tested for and stigmatised just as drink driving.
Lastly I would like society to stop making excuses for those we know, and who may be friends, who knowingly drink more than they should when driving. We all know someone, and how many have taken positive action against them especially when they are a friend?
 
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