Press Notices
09.12.03:
Re-think of approach to drink driving needed says CfIT
The Government needs to re-think its approach to drink driving as it aims to meet its ambitious road safety targets, the Commission for Integrated Transport said today as it launched a new report on road safety.
Commission Chair, Professor David Begg, said: "The number of drink drive fatalities has jumped to 560 for 2002, continuing the recent, unacceptable, upward trend. More targeted enforcement of drink driving is needed, as is legislation enabling evidential breath testing to be administered at the roadside.
"We now lag behind much of Europe on the levels of alcohol we allow in drivers. Recent research undertaken in the USA strengthens previous analysis pointing to alcohol levels above 40mg in 100ml of blood resulting in a significantly higher crash risk. It is estimated that 50 lives a year could be saved if the blood alcohol limit was reduced from the current limit of 80 mg in 100ml to 50mg.
"We, rightly, expect airline pilots and our train, tube and bus drivers to be stone cold sober on duty. So its time to review the levels of alcohol acceptable in the drivers on our roads.
"It is now more than five years since the Government launched a consultation document saying it was 'minded' to reduce the blood alcohol limit to 50mg of alcohol in 100ml of blood.
"Cutting the carnage by introducing limits common in Europe, better targeted enforcement and making road side breath tests available as evidence in court should save lives, save cost and save time," added Professor Begg.
"We may have one of the best road safety records in Europe but we are still killing 3,500 people a year on our roads. That is the equivalent to a Potters Bar and a Hatfield rail crash almost every day of the year.
"And few people make a fuss - just imagine the outrage if we had just 10% of those casualties on any other mode. Well now is the time to be shocked - and to take tougher action.
"We owe it to the thousands of people who will otherwise die unnecessarily over the next decade.
"The Government should be praised for introducing the ban on hand held mobile phones while driving a week ago, but surveys suggest that a third of motorists are saying they will not obey the law. And there is widespread media led hostility to safety cameras - arguably the single most powerful measure to reduce accidents. Why is the Government being given such a hard time when Ministers are trying to save lives?
"Safety cameras have a vital role to play, however, all excess revenue from cameras must be re-invested in road safety measures, starting with extra traffic police. Surplus revenue from cameras should not be returned - as now - to the Treasury. The police are doing a good job with the resources they've got, but there needs to be more officers dedicated to traffic duties and that means more money.
"Despite newspaper campaigns against safety cameras, public opinion is behind their use. If people don't want to be fined they should obey the law. Its there to save lives.
The report prepared by its Motorists' Forum, which has been endorsed by CfIT and sent to Government, recommends both long term and immediate measures to boost safety standards.
But it highlights that even if all the initiatives are taken forward they are no substitute for police enforcement on the ground.
"No remote camera, technical advance or changed road lay out is going to stop the most blatant - and dangerous - abuses of our Highway Code.
"Joy riders, boy racers, drunken drivers and people under the influence of drugs need to know that if they are going to go out and break the law, there is a very good chance they will be caught.
"Police on the ground are the best deterrent for these people, who are more likely to have no licence, be uninsured and have committed other, criminal offences" said Professor Begg. "More police resources would help reverse the decline in the number of breath tests carried out by police and help save lives lost through drink driving accidents.
"Government research has shown that almost half of convicted dangerous drivers have other previous convictions, drink drivers are twice as likely to have a criminal conviction as the rest of us while almost 80% of disqualified drivers have a criminal record."
Notes to editors:
The report's key conclusions are as follows:
Road safety engineering - More staff should be allocated to the road safety sector so more road safety engineering schemes giving at least a benefit-cost ratio of 2:1 over the whole life of the project should be implemented.
Crash protection design to save pedestrians and cyclists - Car design should be modified at the earliest opportunity to offer more protection to these groups in an accident.
Evidential roadside breath testing - Legislation should be introduced to allow evidence of roadside breath tests to be used in court, potentially saving police time and cost.
Traffic offence penalties - Drivers who are caught driving in excess of the speed limit by a wide margin should have extra points added to their licence.
Rural road speed management - New measures are needed to manage single carriageway rural roads to reduce the unacceptably high casualty rate.
Safety cameras - Speed is a major contributory factor in road crashes and Government should continue to emphasise the casualty reduction potential of safety cameras. Speed management strategies should be introduced based on sound evidence.
Real time information - More work needed to see how real time traffic information could improve driver behaviour and improve safety.
Intelligent speed adaptation - Further research needed to see how GPS based technology could physically limit car speeds to local limits.
Enforcement of traffic law - The National Policing Plan should be reviewed: more police are needed on the ground to check on bad and dangerous driving.
At work road casualties - Work to engage employers in the reduction of at-work road casualties should be increased.
Moving to continental time - 80 lives a year could be saved if we moved our clocks to European times.
Drink driving - More rigorous enforcement of current law is needed together with continuance of strong advertising campaigns.
Background:
Out of the 15 EU member states, the UK along with Ireland and Luxembourg are the only countries to have the blood alcohol limit set as high as 80mg. Sweden has a 20mg limit, whilst all other remaining states have a limit of 50mg.
It is estimated that in the 1980s, road traffic police constituted 15% of the entire police force. According to Government figures for 2001-02, they now represent only 5.5%.
The number of breath tests carried out by police fell from 815,000 in 1998 to 624,000 in 2001. The number of people killed or injured in accidents involving a driver over the alcohol limit rose above 20,000 last year for the first time since 1990.
CfIT was set up in 1999 to provide independent advice to Government on the implementation of integrated transport policy, to monitor developments across transport, environment, health and other sectors and to review progress towards meeting our objectives.
Return to: Road safety report index
