Drink Driving: Government rejects its own evidence

There has been a bizarre twist to the long-running story of its refusal to lower the drink drive limit. The Government has again dismissed as of no account its own evidence that doing so would save lives, while simultaneously announcing a publicity campaign warning of the dangers to road safety of blood alcohol levels well below the present legal limit.

In answer to a question from Lord Avebury, Government spokesman in the House of Lords, Lord Davies of Oldham, stated that drink driving is at present ‘under control’ and that targets are in place to reduce the overall number of accidents by 2010. He added, “But at present there is no indication that we would improve the statistics… by reducing the blood alcohol limit.”

Lord Davies’ claim that drink driving is under control may be considered of doubtful validity given that after years of falling the drink drive casualty figures are now increasing. The figures for 2002, the latest year for which figures are available, were the highest since 1990.

However, Lord Davies’ assertion that there is no evidence that lowering the drink drive limit would help matters is even more questionable in view of the evidence that the Government itself published in 1998 that reducing the blood alcohol limit from 80mg per cent to 50mg per cent could save up to fifty lives and prevent around 250 serious and 1200 slight injuries per year. At that time, the Government explained that driving below the 80mg per cent limit was a significant but largely hidden cause of road traffic accidents and that it therefore intended to lower the limit to 50mg per cent.

The Government’s calculations were in line with evidence from abroad. It is estimated that in Australia, Austria, Belgium, France and Sweden, lowering the legal blood alcohol limit for drivers cut the number of road deaths by between 4 per cent and 18 per cent. The evidence suggests that lower legal limits for young drivers may reduce fatal crashes in this group by as much as 24%.

In 2002 the House of Lords European Committee blamed the Government’s failure to lower the limit on the undue influence of the alcohol industry’s Portman Group. Assuming the accuracy of the Government’s estimates, since 1998 this influence has cost some 250-300 lives, and around 7,500 injuries.

Just hours after Lord Davies had stated that lowering the limit would not help, Road Safety Minister David Jamieson launched a new £1.4 million publicity campaign aimed at young drivers and graphically depicting the dangers of having even a couple of drinks before driving. The accompanying fact sheet explains, “Even a small amount of alcohol will make you a worse driver. You don’t judge speed and distance so well and your reactions are not as fast.” The 80mg% legal limit does, of course, allow drivers to consume considerably more than a couple of drinks.

The Government conceded that the new campaign was prompted by the increase in drink drive related deaths and injuries.