Eight in 10 support lowering drink drive limit
New research shows more than eight in 10 people in the North East back calls to lower the legal drink drive limit.
The measure would bring England and Wales in line with Scotland and the rest of the EU, it’s being debated in a Private Members Bill by the House of Lords today. The drink drive limit is expressed as the number of milligrams (mg) of alcohol in 100ml of blood. For us, it stands at 80mg of alcohol/ 100ml of blood. Scotland lowered its drink drive limit to 50mg of alcohol/100ml of blood in 2014 and after just three months, alcohol-related road traffic offences went down 17%.
It is predicted that lowering the limit could save more than 100 lives across the UK every year, as well as preventing many more serious accidents.
The Local Government Association estimates that reducing the limit could also save around £300 million annually in public sector costs relating to the police, ambulance service and hospital admissions. Drink driving is a major issue on our regions roads, with 50 people killed or seriously injured as a direct result of alcohol in 2013 alone. A further 270 suffered minor injuries on the region’s roads due to drink driving.
Colin Shevills, Director of Balance, the North East Alcohol Office, said:
“Alcohol causes real devastation on our roads and accounts for far too many deaths and serious injuries. The risk of road traffic injuries and collisions increases rapidly with alcohol consumption and much more needs to be done to deter people from drinking and driving.
“This is a measure which not only saves lives and saves money, it will save a lot of heartache for families across our region. That’s why it is popular with people across the North East. It’s time action was taken, for all of our sakes.”