Lower drink-drive limit rejected

The government has rejected lowering the legal drink-drive limit by nearly half, as recommended in a Whitehall-commissioned report. Sir Peter North said the limit should be reduced from 80mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood to 50mg, saying this would save hundreds of lives each year.

The transport secretary Philip Hammond says improving enforcement rather than lowering the limit was likely to have more impact . But he has approved several measures recommended to deal with drug-driving.

This includes improved detection equipment and changes to streamline enforcement of both drink and drug driving.

The government will also consider whether a new specific drug-driving offence - alongside the existing one - is needed, to stop police from having to prove impairment on a case-by-case basis where a specified drug has been detected.

Sir Peter, a leading academic and legal expert, had made a total of 51 recommendations in his report. These included making it easier for police to identify and prosecute drug-drivers by allowing nurses, as well as doctors, to authorise blood tests of suspects.

Based on new research by the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), Sir Peter said that as many as 168 lives - about 7% of UK road deaths - could be saved by a reduced drink-drive limit in the first year. This could rise to as many as 303 lives by the sixth year, he said.

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source: BBC