New drink drive limit ‘is failing to cut accidents’
SCOTLAND’S lower drinkdrive limit has not cut the number of road accidents, say researchers.
Four years ago the Scottish Government slashed the legal limit for drivers and warned that the new level meant people should not drink any alcohol if they intended to drive.
It argued the change would help save lives and make roads safer.
But the ‘unequivocal’ results of a study into accidents following the change are that it ‘simply did not have the intended effect’ of reducing collisions.
In fact, the weekly accident rate north of the Border actually rose after the legal change.
The ‘most plausible’ explanation is that the new limit was not backed up with sufficient police enforcement or media campaigning, the Glasgow University study published in medical journal The Lancet concludes.
Last night critics said the change had failed to tackle the worst drink-drivers.
Campaigners said instead there should be random breath testing to help catch drivers over the limit. In December 2014 the Government cut the legal blood alcohol limit from 80 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood to 50mg.
It means the average man is limited to less than a pint of beer and a woman to one small wine. It also means waiting 12 hours to drive after a bottle of wine to avoid being over the limit the next morning.
An awareness-raising campaign warned that ‘the best advice is none’ – meaning people should not drink any alcohol if they are planning to drive.
Professor Jim Lewsey, of Glasgow University’s Institute of Health & Wellbeing, said: ‘Our findings are surprising, given what we know from previous international evidence, which generally supports a reduction of road accidents following the same lowering of a blood alcohol concentration limit.
‘However, the results of our highquality study are unequivocal – they
‘Focusing on wrong end of the scale’
indicate that the reduction in Scotland’s drink-drive limit simply did not have the intended effect of reducing road traffic accidents.
‘In our view the most plausible explanation for our findings is that the change in legislation was not backed up with additional police enforcement, nor sustained media campaigning.’
Professor Lewsey stressed: ‘These findings should not be interpreted to imply that any level of drinkdriving is safe.’
The researchers looked at police figures on road accidents in Scotland, and England and Wales, where the drink-drive limit is still 80mg.
They compared records between January 2013 and December 2016 – before and after the new limit was introduced north of the Border.
After the new legal limit took effect, the rate of weekly accidents actually rose by 7 per cent. Scottish Tory justice spokesman Liam Kerr said: ‘We warned at the time that the SNP Government was focusing on the wrong end of the scale with these changes.
‘We wanted more attention on those whose irresponsible behaviour causes death and destruction.
‘This report seems to back that approach up.’
Alison Douglas, chief executive of Alcohol Focus Scotland, said: ‘We need to increase public understanding and awareness of the risks and the limit.
‘We need more effective enforcement, preferably random breath testing which has delivered positive reductions in accidents and fatalities in other countries.’
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘Drivers are six times more likely to die in a road traffic accident with a blood alcohol concentration between 50mg and 80mg than with zero blood alcohol.’