Three out of four drivers favour lower drink limit

Public perceptions of drink driving have changed in recent years, and strong support now exists for a lower legal blood alcohol limit, the chairman of an expert group due to recommend a new limit has said.

Trinity College Prof Ray Fuller, who chairs the Road Safety Authority (RSA) expert group which will shortly recommend a new blood alcohol limit, said about three out of every four drivers are in favour of a lower limit.

The new Road Safety Strategy 2007 to 2012 recommends lowering the drink-drive limit by June 2009, but does not suggest a limit. The expert group is due to make its recommendation early next year.

The Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey said at the launch of the strategy last month that he, personally, was in favour of a move from the current level of 80mg/100ml to 50mg/100ml.

Ireland, Britain and Northern Ireland share the 80mg/100ml limit while all other European countries have moved to 50mg/100ml limit.

Northern Ireland is also examining its alcohol limit for drivers, and environment minister in Northern Ireland, Arlene Foster, said last month she was considering cutting the limit, possibly to 20mg/100ml.

Speaking at a Psychological Society of Ireland conference last weekend, Prof Fuller said the rise in public support for drink driving enforcement meant it was an appropriate time for the Government to implement a lower blood alcohol limit.

Drivers who consume the current Irish legal limit of 80mg/100ml of alcohol are almost 270 per cent more likely to crash. At the reduced level of 50mg/100ml this falls to a 38 per cent higher risk than drivers with no alcohol at all in their system, said Prof Fuller.

He was basing his analysis on six recent surveys of driver attitudes to drink driving in Ireland including research from SARTE, an EU project interviewing a minimum of 1,000 people in each state; the National Safety Council and the Irish Insurance Federation. Within these research papers there was widespread support for a zero alcohol limit for inexperienced drivers, with 90 per cent of those questioned in favour of such a limit, Prof Fuller said.

Alcohol is estimated to be a contributory factor in 37 per cent of all fatal crashes with males accounting for 90 per cent of these deaths. For young men, alcohol is a factor in half of all fatal crashes.

According to research from in 2006, some 2 per cent of all Irish drivers admit to regularly driving while over the limit, or around 40,000 motorists.

A final point raised by Prof Fuller is that policy makers must be careful not to transfer the problem from one type of road user to another. Last year in 38 per cent of pedestrian deaths the victim had consumed alcohol: "What we really need is not just a cultural shift in the acceptability of drink driving, but a shift in the way in which we consider alcohol may be acceptably used."

Noel Brett, head of the RSA, said the expert group was working to decide a new alcohol level that "will give the best road possible reduction in deaths and serious injuries, while maintaining the highest level of public support".

He said the expert group was expected to make its recommendation "early next year" and that the new limit should be in place ahead of the timescale of June 2009 contained in the Road Safety Strategy.