David Hibble
We have .05 as a safe level to drive, and .15 before your licence may be taken away on the spot. Latest research tells us that at .05 you are quite impaired ..02 is the new .05. Countries serious about road safety have .02 as the highest level.
THE FIGHT for alcohol to be recognized as a factor in road trauma was hard fought and eventually won in the 1960s. The knowledge around at that time is what our laws are based on today, some forty seven years later.
We have .05 as a safe level to drive, and .15 before your licence may be taken away on the spot. Latest research tells us that at .05 you are quite impaired ..02 is the new .05
Countries serious about road safety have .02 as the highest level.
If we continue to lose lives to drink driving then zero must be the next step. Human life comes first. Licence loss should be immediate for all drivers. You would not get a high resistance in changing these laws because most drivers are surprised that after being caught drink driving that they are allowed to continue driving the next day. They can continue to drive until they receive a summons. That is often months later. Many drivers are confused about whether they can continue to drive or not. It can and does take months to get the summons. Often once the driver realizes how much rope they have to play with they will play the system for as long as they can. By the time the driver –probationary or full licence- gets to court the initial lesson of being caught drink driving or speeding has lost its impact.
They have been able to drive around since being caught with no concern about there ability to do so. Therefore the message received is that it really cannot be that dangerous.
They may have even been caught drink driving or speeding again with still no impact on their licence. It is time to drastically re- enforce the correct message.
Drivers will eventually lose their licence but by that time it is now just nuisance value and not viewed as a loss for road safety reasons. Only immediate action will send that message. It isn’t any good spending millions on road safety if it isn’t followed up with immediate actions. What is shown to be a major cause of road trauma (drink/drug driving and speeding) is initially treated as little more than a parking ticket.
David Hibble
