All small business owners need to be aware that the government raised the issue of lowering the drink drive limit in a consultation published last November, entitled ‘Road Safety Compliance'. The paper examines a number of other issues relating to enforcement of road traffic offences; such as speeding and careless driving, but the most divisive is whether the UK should adopt a similar blood alcohol level to other European countries. The UK's current limit is 80mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood, whilst the majority of Europe has a level of 50mg.
For many small businesses owners having a car so they can travel around is absolutely essential to their livelihood. It is also the responsibility of SME owners to ensure that staff driving using company vehicles comply with all the necessary regulations - if they do not then they can end up in the Criminal Courts.
The UK's stance of a limit of 80mg was always based on the evidence available showing that the level of impairment was significantly increased around that level. There seems to be no new evidence to suggest that lowering the limit would be beneficial to road safety, in particular, the latest figures for deaths or serious injuries caused by drink driving in the UK showed a further fall in August 2008.
The transport minister, Rosie Winterton, pointed out that the further reduction was due to the years of effective campaigning against drink driving. Safety charities are still concerned about the number of deaths associated with drivers who are not over the limit but still have alcohol in their systems, but when comparing the UK to other countries with lower limits, there is no conclusive evidence to show a reduction in the number of casualties; partly because the results will always be obscured by campaign measures and better enforcement.
What is plain is that the current drink driving level confuses the public; the 80mg level can mean a very different level of consumption between different people. It is easy to see that setting the limit at the relatively high level of 80mg implies that some drinking before driving is acceptable. This causes the vast majority of people to battle with determining how much alcohol is acceptable; is one pint too much?
Some countries set the legal limit at 0 or just above, which sends the crystal clear message that any drinking before driving is wrong. However, there will always be cases of people who have small amounts of alcohol in their systems, but simply don't realise and end up before the Courts. Lower limits will cause problems for the ‘morning after', but the simple answer may be to stop binge drinking.
Setting a lower limit could also create a more flexible sentencing regime. Currently, anyone convicted of driving with more than 80mg of alcohol in their blood faces a compulsory, minimum one year disqualification, as well as a fine and a potential custodial sentence in serious cases. The government would have to determine whether that regime is justifiable at the lower rate, or whether Courts would be allowed to use discretion before disqualifying individuals.
Some countries sentence driving with quantities of alcohol just over the 50mg limit similarly with speeding or other lesser traffic offences and the UK may be labelled draconian if the sentences are kept the same with a lower limit. On the other hand, the government's campaign strategy of ‘a drink too far leads a one year ban' may be significantly neutered without a mandatory sentence.
A lower limit would probably require new police powers to stop motorists or random tests to enforce it. The government is also about to approve new hand-held, roadside devices which are due for role out in 2010, or when the government can get their hands on them, which would speed up the enforcement process.
The simple message that one drink before driving is a drink too far is the easiest to understand; a limit of 50 means that no one can be excused from the behaviour when they are caught. The 460 people killed on the country's roads last year by drink driving is too many and anything that has the potential to reduce deaths needs to be looked at and considered very seriously.
For more information visit www.freemankeepondriving.com
