Breath tests have saved lives...
In 1967 the Road Safety Act established the 80 mg. blood alcohol limit and the 70 m.p.h. speed limit was made permanent. These actions dealt with the two major causes of death and injury on our roads - alcohol and speed.
Since then the number of road deaths has dropped from 7,985 in 1966 to 3,598 in 1996. If this decline had not occurred an additional 62,000 people might have been killed on our roads - equivalent to an MP's average constituency.
It is impossible to estimate accurately how many of these lives saved were directly attributable to the introduction of breath testing. However, there is no doubt that breath testing has made a substantial contribution to the overall improvement.
Records of alcohol-related fatalities have only been kept since 1979 in which year there were 1,790. By 1996 this figure dropped to 540. The major decline in alcohol-related casualties and overall deaths has occurred since the establishment of the victims family organisation CADD and the 10 year Department of Transport campaign with the theme "Drinking and Driving Wrecks Lives".
First year triumph for breathalyser :
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1,152 fewer killed
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11,177 fewer seriously injured
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28,130 fewer slightly injured
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33% decrease in casualties between 10 pm and 4 am
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42% decrease in casualties on Saturday nights
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40% decrease in casualties on early Sunday mornings
In the first seven years the Breath Test saved 5,000 lives and prevented 200,000 injuries
Its effectiveness began to diminish and by 1974 the proportion of drivers killed in crashes above the legal limit rose to 35% compared with 15% in 1968. Consequently in 1976 the Government set up a committee under Frank Blennerhassett QC to review the working of the law on drinking and driving. The committee felt that the increase in drinking and driving could not be separated from the growth in national alcohol consumption, especially among young people.
Blennerhassett proposed:
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The introduction of alternative roadside screening devices and the use of evidential breath tests at the police station.
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Drivers convicted twice within a ten-year period or found with a blood alcohol concentration over 200 mg. should, in addition to the normal penalties, not receive the return of their licence until they could prove that they no longer had a drinking problem. Such drivers were classed as High Risk Offenders.
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Publicity campaigns should be continuous and better research on drink and drugs in relation to driving should be carried out.
It was not until 1981 that the Government passed legislation to introduce evidential breath testing (the operation of which was delayed until 1983); limited blood and urine tests and substituted them with evidential breath tests - retaining 80 mg. for blood; 107 mg. for urine and introduced the limit of 35 micrograms for breath. Police were given greater flexibility over procedures to be followed in roadside screening, closing many "loopholes" which lawyers had used in defence of their clients. To refuse to give a breath test when asked by a police constable became an offence.
High risk offender schemes were introduced in the eighties under existing legislation and in 1990 the procedure was extended to cover all who were convicted at two and a half times above the legal limit or had two convictions within 10 years. Such drivers must satisfy doctors appointed by the Department of Transport that they have modified their drinking behaviour before their driving licences are returned. In 1991 the Road Traffic Act introduced experimental alcohol education programmes aimed at young, first time offenders.
