A recent survey has found that a large majority of people in Britain think the drink-drive limit should be lowered.
The current limit for drink driving in England and Wales remains at 80mg alcohol per 100ml blood, and this has been the case since 1965. The road safety charity Brake is calling for this limit to be lowered and recently ran a survey of 2,000 members of the public, 77 per cent of which supported lowering the drink-driving limit.
England and Wales have one of the highest drink-drive limits in the world at present. The limit is higher than the rest of Europe, with the exception of Malta. The limit is also higher than countries including Australia, New Zealand and South Africa.
Drink-driving is estimated to cause 240 deaths and over 8,000 casualties in the UK each year. Brake says that there has been no real reduction in the number of drink-driving deaths since 2010.
Brake’s director of communications and campaigns, Gary Rae, said: “Drink driving remains one of the biggest causes of devastating road crashes; often young and inexperienced drivers and passengers are involved and frequently they are the tragic victims.
“We must continue to send a clear message to all drivers that drinking and driving is a lethal cocktail. It’s shocking to see how many crashes, many involving deaths and serious injuries, have involved men in their 20s. This call to action today is a useful stepping stone to a time when there is a zero alcohol limit.”
In December 2014, Scotland reduced its drink-drive limit from 80mg to 50mg alcohol per 100ml blood. A similar reduction was also recently announced by the Government of Malta.
