New rules to reduce drink limits

DESPITE LOBBYING by vintners of TDs over the summer, the new road traffic bill will contain a provision to reduce the drink-drive limit to 50mg and to introduce a 20mg limit for learner and professional drivers.

The drink-driving reductions are a key part of a new road traffic bill expected to come before the Dáil in the autumn.

The legislation also includes a requirement for the mandatory testing of drivers at collisions where injuries occur.

This would remove the legal discretion currently available to gardaí to decide whether a driver at a crash site should be tested, but falls short of testing all drivers at crashes attended by the Garda.

This is understood to have been among the more complicated aspects of the draft legislation, with the Department of Transport working closely with the Attorney General, Paul Gallagher.

Hauliers, taxi drivers and those working for public transport companies will be among the professional drivers subject to the new, lower 20mg limit.

For inexperienced drivers, the new lower limit will apply to those on a learner permit – which has replaced the provisional licence – and for their first two years on a full licence.

The lower drink limits mirror recommendations made to the Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey by the Road Safety Authority (RSA) in 2008.

In its submissions, the RSA quoted research by Dr Declan Bedford, a specialist in public health medicine with the HSE, in support of its recommendations for a 50mg limit.

Dr Bedford examined the 301 fatal crashes in 2003, in which 335 people died, and found those who had consumed between 50mg and 79mg of alcohol accounted for 10 per cent of those killed.

A reduction in the limits by June this year was a key recommendation of the Government’s Road Safety Strategy, although it did not recommend a particular level.

In its submission to the Minister, the RSA noted Ireland and the UK are the only two countries in Europe with an 80mg limit, with all other states moving to a 50mg limit or lower.

Before new limits can be introduced, the Medical Bureau of Road Safety will have to replace the 64 evidential breath-testing devices based at Garda stations across the State.

In its submission to the Department in April 2008 the RSA said these machines are “unable to calculate” samples with a blood alcohol level below the current limit of 80mg.

Publicans and some TDs are opposing any reduction in drink-drive limits. The Vintners Federation of Ireland has written to all deputies over the summer warning of damage to the sector.