From the statistics it becomes apparent that because of all this celebrating, and pressures from friends, people take more chances at this time of year. So what should be done about this increase?
Local Countermeasures to tackle drink driving have been implemented: -
- In venue breathalysing and education of programs
- Local and advertising
- Trails of designated driver programs
- Targeted local enforcements
But from all these countermeasures, I am surprised that improving transport facilities wasn’t on the list. I believe that a lot of drink driving stems from transport difficulties
Espiacally around the festival season when it becomes none existence and taxis charge what ever they want. Shouldn’t we be looking at this as well?
Last year the department of transport spend millions in campaigning, which was hard-hitting. Posters, bill-boards and television advertisements depicted in realistic terms the consequences of drink driving to the point that several advertisements were done in slow motion to emphasize the dangers.
Before the general elections the labour party made it quite clear that one of its aims was to lower the drink drive limit from 80mg alcohol per 100mls of blood to 50mg.
Many people including the police, Magistrates and the medical professions were all in favour of this recommendation. Since this proposal there as been much speculation as to when this measure would be taken, and the decision to ignore these people above was taken. Consultations carried out by the department of Environment, Transport and the regions (DETR), showed that there was a convincing majority in favour of the lower limit, 75% respondents were in favour of the 50mg limit, while 20% wanted to keep the existing limit. Interestingly, given that young men are the largest alcohol-consuming group, the strongest support for the 80mg came from men over 25mg.
Could this different between this age groups be due to the fact that these men have become harder drinkers over the years and if the lower limit was introduced it would affect them more? Traditionally, men have always drank more alcohol socially in pubs and clubs, in fact year ago it was taboo for a women to drink or smoke.
In recent years women have consumed more alcohol, than ever before which as lead to more cases of liver sclerosis, being diagnosed that ever before
If we lowered the limit it would not only be beneficial to health and social well-being but also prevent these fatal accidents whilst driving. I believe that from intense pressures from the drink industry the government are prolonging their commitment to lower the limit. An official source from the DETR said the government feared that a reduction in the drink drive limit would cause political backlash. “ To reduce the limit again would be like asking people not to eat beef off the bone – they would just continue to do it.” As a national we always seem to be behind when it comes to issues relating this one. Already the European commission is looking into the 50mg debate, because many countries have this 50mg limit and a lower level for specific drivers. It appears to me that England is always the last to implement these things.
I do understand that rural pubs and hotels are dependent on access by car, but surely with increasing deaths from drink driving some type of measure should definitely brought in to stop this increasing number of deaths.
In my opinion a zero tolerate initiative would not be as miss leading as a one pint limit.
