Insuring against drinking and driving.
Insureyourmotor.com today learnt that the government are considering plans to reduce the current, and somewhat contenscious, threshold of - 80mg of alcohol to 100ml of blood ratio - by approximately one third in the near future. The reasoning behind this is simple. The proposed (and Department of Transport-favoured) tougher projection of a 50mg limit can only be discussed and subsequently implemented in the aftermath of authorities getting more coherent statistics with reference to the current 80mg level. An astonishing admittance to the ineffectiveness of the enforcement of existing levels this surely, can only harm the government's defence of its long term intentions for which so long they've delayed any dialogue about, much to the derision of those bodies championing the argument for change.
Not so according to Stephen Ladyman, the Transport Minister who, sidestepping the concerns as to where the blame lay, stressed; "the government may well wish to move toward a figure of 50mg in the future, 30mg lower than today's threshold, when the authorities get it right."
A 50mg limit would bring the UK in line with the rest of Europe, whose member states have already learnt to live with this lower level, or, in some cases, tougher standards. If these new measures were to be introduced, they would be greeted with jubilation by such influential organizations like the Royal Society For The Protection Of Accidents, the Association Of Chief Police Officers and the British Medical Association, aswell as prominent safety groups like B.R.A.K.E, who have campaigned feverishly for years for this concern to be addressed and given full and frank debate.
However critics of a reduced limit take issue with the underlying fact that if today's laws were dealt with in a more exacting manner this in itself would have a far greater impact on road safety. Contrary as this is to research in America which has discovered that driving impairment takes effect at just 40mg of alcohol to 100ml of blood, some half of the current legal level on these shores, opinion is, as ever, divided as to what figure should be advocated and perhaps, universally set in stone.
Either way, the message is as clear as ever, that people will not be able to drink as much alcohol before driving as perhaps legislation has until now allowed, and we here at insureyourmotor.com fully support any further initiatives adopted by any organisations that will continue to warn motorists as to the ever present dangers of drinking and driving in any given context.
Date - 21/09/2006
