New drink-drive limits are in the pipeline and designed to make us all more responsible drivers and to make everyone around us, passengers, pedestrians, and even the neighbourhood cat, feel secure when someone is behind the wheel. The proposed new limits will see the level of alcohol allowed in the blood drop from 80mg per 100ml to 50mg per 100ml. That’s all well and good, but will it actually work?
The UK has the highest blood alcohol concentration (BAC) allowance in Europe, whereas the rest of the continent already requires drivers to have no more than 50mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood. This clearly shows Europe means business on drink-driving, and of course, if the new regulations become law, it will show the UK is taking an ever-increasingly tougher view on those getting behind the wheel after one too many.
Understandably, the media have been having a field day with the news and have jumped on the numerous stories emerging of drink driving offences committed. This article from the Independent features quotes from Conservative MP Tracey Crouch stating,
“We have seen drink-driving accidents increase over the past two years, and we want to start by targeting younger drivers who are more likely to be involved in a fatal collision than older drivers.”
Fortunately, while drink-drive deaths have seen year-on-year increases in the last decade, deaths have fallen by three-quarters overall in the UK during the last thirty years. Despite this, drink driving is still the cause of 250 deaths a year and a factor in about 10,000 road traffic accidents every year.*
Further evidence is found in a BBC report, which records 380 drink-driving-related deaths in 2009, 240 in 2010, 230 in 2011 and 290 in 2012, which signalled the first increase in the number of drink-driver-related deaths since 2006.
The question here is, do new regulations go far enough? Does simply enforcing a change in the quantity a driver can consume before being over the limit further reduce alcohol-related accidents?
The numbers of deaths are significantly below what they were in 1979 when it was recorded there were 1,640 drink-related deaths on UK roads, one of the highest numbers ever seen. The reduction over three decades shows that government campaigns that are twinned with the current drink-drive limit have worked well. However, to achieve further reductions, Insurance Revolution has identified from working with convicted drivers coming to us for insurance that education is the key to sustainable, further reductions.
Insurance Revolution customers requiring drink driver insurance have often been charged, having got behind the wheel, without recognising the “couple of pints after work” could risk the loss of their driving license.
Leading change is at the core of the mission Insurance Revolution set out to achieve for its customers, and we urge the government to pair a proposed reduction in the drink-drive limit with easier-to-digest guidelines.
Some of the many grey areas surrounding what effects BAC are listed below and highlight the difficulty many drivers have in appreciating whether they are over the limit:
- Whether you’re male or female
- If you are drinking on an empty stomach
- If you are drinking quickly
- Your proportion of body fat (body fat does not absorb alcohol)
- Your metabolic rate (affected by diet, digestion, fitness, emotional state, hormonal cycle, time of day, year, etc).
- If you are tired – this will affect your concentration and absorption
- The percentage of alcohol in the drink
- The type of alcohol you are drinking (fizzy drinks are absorbed more quickly)*
If you’re convicted for having gotten behind the wheel after having consumed more than the legal limit, the team is on hand to support you. We can also provide you with drink driver insurance that caters to your specific needs, and we are equipped with the advice you need following a motoring conviction.
Insurance Revolution can provide drink driver insurance catered to your needs.
*Source: http://www.drinkingandyou.com/site/uk/drive.htm