UK mulls drink-drive limit cut

'Don't drink and drive' message not getting through

By Lester Haines • Get more from this author

Posted in Law, 15th June 2007 10:49 GMT

Free whitepaper – Total cost of ownership of Dell, HP and IBM blade solutions

The government is considering cutting the UK's drink-drive limit under "mounting pressure...from road safety groups and also the British Medical Association", the Telegraph reports.

Several police forces earlier this year expressed concern that drivers, especially younger ones, simply weren't taking on board the "don't drink and drive" message. Department for Transport (DfT) stats back this up, showing that there were "1,050 17-19 year olds involved in drink drive accidents in 2005, compared to 810 a decade ago".

The powers that be hinted back in February they were mulling a cut from 80 milligrams per 100 millilitres of blood to 50 milligrams, and roads minister Stephen Ladyman has now said the DfT would "produce proposals for consultation later in the year".

A DfT spokesman explained last night: "As part of our latest road safety review in February we said we would keep under review the case for a lower drink drive limit. The UK already has stringent penalties for drink driving, and better enforcement than many countries, but that doesn't mean we can't do better.

"We have said many times that we plan to explore ways of making drink driving enforcement easier for police. This will take the form of a consultation later in the year - and until that is complete it is impossible to say what measures may or may not be taken forward." ®

Free whitepaper – Dell PowerEdge server benchmarks