Image Source: Flickr
At the end of 2014, Scotland lowered their drink driving limit in an attempt to reduce the number of road accidents that can be attributed to drink driving. The limit was cut significantly from 80mg per 100ml of blood to 50mg per 100ml – to put this in perspective, while up to 2 pints of beer would have been within the legal limit before the new law was introduced, today Scots could be persecuted for getting behind the wheel after just one pint. A question many are asking is whether the rest of the UK – whose laws currently remain unchanged – should be following suit and lowering the limit.
Early Findings from the New Drink Drive Limit in Scotland
Although the new limit was only introduced in December – in time for the festive period when drink driving accidents are prevalent – the Scottish government is already reporting huge successes. According to statistics released by Police Scotland, 351 drivers were penalised over the Christmas period for drink driving, compared to 434 from the previous year, suggesting that the new law has made drivers more aware of the dangers of getting behind the wheel after a night at the pub. However, is this effect something that can be maintained? Do lower limits really work?
Does Lowering the Limit Really Work?
Last year, the Department for Transport released their road casualty report from 2012, which shows a total of 230 drink drive deaths on UK roads. That’s 13 percent of all road deaths attributed to alcohol – a figure that was largely unchanged from the previous year. If lower limits are both sustainable and successful, a trend we would expect to see is lower figures from countries who impose a much stricter ban on drink driving. Is this the case? Not necessarily, according to the Road Safety Vademecum by the European Commission.
The 2013 report, which looks at road accident statistics from the same 2012 period, cites Sweden, the Netherlands, Denmark, and the United Kingdom as the safest countries in terms of alcohol-related road deaths. These countries impose limits of between 20mg per 100ml, and 80mg per 100ml, suggesting that the drink drive limit isn’t particularly associated with overall safety or good judgement. In fact, to drive this notion home even further, the worst countries for drink drive deaths – Poland, Lithuania, Greece, and Romania, all have lower alcohol limits than the UK.
Does the UK Need to Lower the Limit?
Drink driving is a very real problem not only in the UK but across the world, and it’s important that measures are taken to ensure both drivers and pedestrians are protected. While this can mean lowering the current drink drive limit, as a nation we should be questioning whether it’s the limit itself that’s the problem, or if it is more related to a lack of knowledge about the dangers of consuming alcohol before getting behind the wheel. In the UK, we’ve seen many highly successful drink driving campaigns both digitally and in print, suggesting that awareness is key when it comes to drink driving.
