Review of drink and drug driving laws- What do you think?

In the first major review of drink and drug driving law since 1976, Sir Peter North has recommended that the drink drive limit be reduced from 80mg/100ml to 50mg/100ml and that there should be a step-by-step assault on drug-driving.

The leading academic and legal expert recommended that the current mandatory 12-month driving ban should be maintained for the new 50mg limit and claimed that these alterations in the law would save hundreds of lives

Alcohol wise, the changes would bring us in line with the rest of Europe. As you can see from the chart in the Daily Mail, all other countries have a limit of 50mg, 20mg or, in some cases, zero tolerance.

On drug driving, in the short term Sir Peter recommends that police procedures enforcing current drug driving laws are improved, making it more straightforward for police to identify and prosecute drug drivers by allowing nurses, as well as doctors, to authorise blood tests of suspects.

The review was commissioned by the old Labour government.  While the new coalition has called it “a serious piece of work”, and promised to examine the proposals, it is not certain that they will take all of them on, given that the Conservatives opposed changing the drink driving laws while in opposition.

Obviously going over the limit depends on a number of factors such as the size of the individual, but what this means roughly is that at the 50mg limit the average man could have just under a pint of “normal strength” beer or a large glass of wine, and a woman would be limited to half a pint or a small glass of wine.

Sir Peter explains, “With a blood alcohol level between my proposed limit of 50mg per 100ml and the current 80mg per 100ml limit, a driver has a six times greater risk of road death than a non-drinking driver.”

He continues, "Surveys also tell us that the public is in favour of lengthy bans for drink drivers and witnesses have told me that the current ban is the major deterrent to drink driving.”

Do you think that’s true? In rural areas like ours this is quite a significant issue. Some have suggested that if the law is changed even more rural pubs could face closure. Or perhaps you feel this is a no-brainer if it helps save lives?