Just one pint of beer could make you unfit to drive
A SInGLe drink could be enough to affect a driver’s safety on the road, experts have warned.
even low levels of drinking, such as one pint or a large glass of wine considerably hamper a driver’s ability to function, the neuroscientists have found.
Dr Silvana De Pirro, of the University of Sussex, said that there is a ‘ compelling case’ that one drink can ‘significantly compromise’ an individual’s sense of control.
She added: ‘This has important implications for legal and social responsibility of drivers, and begs the question: are current alcohol limits for driving truly safe?’
The drink- drive limit is 80mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood in england and Wales, or 35 micrograms per 100ml of breath. That is usually the equivalent of two pints of averagestrength beer, or a large glass of average-strength wine.
Limits are lower in Scotland, at around 50mg per 100ml of blood or 22 micograms per 100ml of breath.
An AA spokesman said warnings against drinking and driving are ‘not just there for some kind of mantra’. He said: ‘It is there as a warning simply because a lot of people who might have thought they could have one drink and drive may be tempted to have another.’
With the summer season of pub trips coming up with the fine weather, he added: ‘It’s probably a timely reminder to people to take care when they are going out and having drink.’
Most research into how drinking affects behaviour has focused on the loss of inhibition, impulsiveness and aggression drunkenness can trigger. The University of Sussex study – published in journal Addiction Biology – is the first of its kind to look at how low amounts of alcohol can impact how much drinkers feel in-control of their actions.
Subjects were given cocktails containing amounts of alcohol below the legal driving limit in england and Wales, with results finding that overconfidence in driving ability alongside potentially risky behaviour were more common even with low levels of alcohol. Blood alcohol below the legal limit still created an ‘impairment’ in how in-control subjects felt over their own actions.
Professor Aldo Badiani, of the Sussex Addiction Research and Intervention Centre, said: ‘It’s important to note that in our experiments, all the participants stayed within the legal alcohol limit for driving in england, Wales, the US and Canada.
‘And yet we still saw an impairment in their feeling of being in control.
‘In england, Wales and north America, the argument to lower the limit has much momentum. The results of our study support the implementation of such a change in the law.’
However, a study late last year found that Scotland’s lower drink-drive limit had not reduced road accidents since it was introduced in 2014.
But overall deaths and injuries due to drink-driving have dropped significantly over the past decade.
Provisional figures from the Department for Transport showed that 330 people died as a result of drink-driving in 2017, down from 410 in 2005.
The number of drink-driving casualties also fell, from 14,020 in 2007 to 8,660 in 2017. And drivers aged 20 to 24 are the most likely to be involved in a drink-drive accident.
‘Are current limits truly safe?’