Road safety charity Brake has urged ministers and the public to take action on drink driving, as results from the Association of Chief Police Officers' summer enforcement campaign were released. Over 5% of the 83,000 drivers breathalysed in June tested positive, refused or failed a breath test: only a marginal drop from last year.
Brake is renewing its appeal to government to lower the drink drive limit in England and Wales, adopting a clear, zero tolerance approach, and give greater priority to traffic policing to ensure more breath tests are carried out.
England and Wales have a drink drive limit of 80mg alcohol per 100ml blood, the highest in Europe, encouraging many to believe that one or two drinks before driving is okay. Research shows just 20-50mg alcohol increases crash risk by three times. Recently Northern Ireland and Scotland have announced plans to reduce their limit to 50mg, while in Northern Ireland novice and at-work drivers will have a zero-tolerance limit of 20mg.