Breathalysing pedestrians is a 'non-starter'

One of the rare good news stories in recent years has been the continuing decline in the number of deaths on the road. Last year’s total of 241 was the lowest on record with indications that 2010 could be another record low despite the recent multiple deaths involving teenagers.

Much of the decrease in roads deaths has been ascribed to a change in the culture in relation to drink-driving. Nevertheless, alcohol remains a major factor in the number of road fatalities in Ireland, according to the most comprehensive study done to date.

A team of researchers from the Department of Public Health in the HSE Dublin northeast region found that nearly half of all drivers killed on Irish roads were over the legal alcohol-limit. The research was carried out in relation to files for every death which occurred between 2003 and 2005 when 611 people were killed on Irish roads.

The same research found that a quarter of the 200 or so pedestrians killed in the same period were over the same limit – 22 of them were at least three times over. More than 1,150 pedestrians were killed in the period between 1991 and 2001 when Ireland had the third highest rate of pedestrian death in Europe.

While the Government has acted to bring down the drink driving limits, no such measure is available for pedestrians. In response to the Irish study, Australian researchers have proposed a radical solution to counter drink-walkers which is detailed in a letter to the Irish Medical Journal.

The researchers from the Centre for Automative Safety Research Unit in the University of Adelaide believe that breathalysing pedestrians would be a solution to highly intoxicated pedestrians who are a danger to themselves and others.

They acknowledge that such a measure could be “dismissed as politically impracticable” but that could be overcome by setting the limit very high and there would be a worthwhile reduction in pedestrian fatalities which would make the measure acceptable to the public.

The proposal is now being considered by the state government in South Australia but is likely to get short shrift from locals there. A newspaper poll found that only 18 per cent of voters supported such a measure.

Closer to home, the HSE-based doctors who drew up the report on drink-driving have dismissed the proposals as impractical. They say breathalysing pedestrians would not be “realistic politically” and instead they propose the placing of breathalysers in pubs to be used as a measure for people that publicans suspect of being intoxicated. The breathalysers would serve as a warning to customers that they were becoming close to dangerously intoxicated.

They also claim that a more efficient solution would be an increase in the price of alcohol through taxation and limiting its physical availability through reducing the number of outlets and times of opening. For the Road Safety Authority, the breathalysing of pedestrians is a non-starter, according to its chief executive Noel Brett.

He said that when they were preparing the recent road safety legislation there was no evidence put forward to suggest that a breathalysing limit should be put on pedestrians. “We see neither the rationale nor the need for such legislation. We don’t want to live in a State where we have to legislate for everything, where it becomes the job of a guard to regulate even for pedestrians,” he said.

He also echoed the sentiment that there was sufficient legislation to deal with people who are drunk in a public place and no further legislation is needed.