A leading campaign organisation has urged the Government to lower the drink drive limit in England and Wales after the release of a new study into the issue.
The Parliamentary Advisory Committee for Transport Safety’s ‘Fit to Drive’ report revealed that the most recent data suggests an average of 4.5 fatal drink-drive accidents occur each week, prompting GEM Motoring Assist to call for immediate action to save lives.
“It’s believed that reducing the limit from 80mg/100ml to 50mg/100ml would save around 25 lives and 95 serious injuries every year”, said David Williams MBE, Chief Executive of GEM Motoring Assist.
A sixth of all road deaths involve drivers over the legal limit, and GEM Motoring Assist claim many drink-drivers escape prosecution due to delays in transporting them from the scene to a police station allowing time for their blood alcohol level to fall. They organisation says this in unacceptable given advances in roadside breath-test technology.
“There is excellent technology available to make simple, effective roadside breath tests a reality”, continued David Williams. “After all, it is now 11 years since Parliament made provision for roadside evidential breath-testing, which would greatly increase the number of tests carried out by police officers, and reduce the vast burden of paperwork which accompanies every positive breath test. Reducing the drink drive limit should be the number one priority, as this would bring clear and significant road safety benefits. Supporting this should be modern alcohol testing equipment that helps police officers do their job more efficiently.”
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