No alcohol - I'm driving, makes much more sense YES SAYS Tony Dring is from the Campaign Against Drinking and Driving TO OUR shame, Great Britain has the highest drink-drive limit of any European Community country. This contributes to our unacceptably high drink-drive crash, death and injury statistics. Fairly obviously, if we allow people who are drunk to drive on our roads, they cause crashes. Also, and perhaps more importantly, by setting the drink-drive level so high, people who have no intention of exceeding the drink-drive limit do go out with friends to the pub or to barbecues, dinner parties, etc, and despite trying to remain within the limit have no idea when they have exceeded this limit. So, with the best will in the world, a couple of drinks ends up in death, injury and all too often a conviction for driving with excess alcohol. The Government policy is simple. They say you should not drink and drive. But you can drink and drive legally (but not safely) until your blood alcohol level reaches 80mg per 100 ml of blood. At which point, if caught, you will be prosecuted, fined, banned and receive a criminal record. What they will not tell you, in fact what they can not tell you is how much alcohol, how many pints of lager, how many glasses of wine, etc, it takes to reach or exceed that limit. This is because we all react differently to drink and that reaction changes for each one of us from day to day, depending on our metabolism, when and how we last ate and even our mood. Would it not be so much easier and safer to have a drink-drive limit which said to the driver, clearly and simply: do not drink and drive. By setting the limit at such a level that any drinking would make it illegal to drive would simplify matters for the driver. "No alcohol for me, I'm driving" makes so much more sense than well, just a couple of pints, I'm driving and don't want to exceed the limit, but a pint or two won't harm me, will it? The truth is that even one drink does affect your driving, and having had one or two drinks it makes refusing the next alcoholic drink even harder. Hence, many drivers go to social functions with every intention of remaining legal if not safe. But, without knowing just how much drink will put them over the limit, the driver has not got the faintest idea what his or her blood alcohol level is. As it takes a while for the alcohol to show in a test, even self-testers are unreliable - unless used the following day to ensure that alcohol has been evacuated from the system. Despite the lowest death and injury road statistics ever, drink-drive death and injuries have seen an upward march over the last few years. If you are driving the only safe drinking level is: DON'T DRINK AND DRIVE. Just one drink will affect your ability and may lead to your killing or injuring those who mean most to you. | 
Article
