HSE report backs lower alcohol limit

AT LEAST 18 drivers killed in crashes between 2003 and 2005 had a blood alcohol level between the current limit of 80mg and the Government’s proposed new lower limit of 50mg, according to a new Health Service Executive (HSE)report.

The research was conducted by HSE public health specialist Dr Declan Bedford, who examined 995 case files from 2005 in which 1,105 people died.

The report, Alcohol in Fatal Road Crashes in Ireland 2003 to 2005, is an updated version of earlier research and, for the first time, examines the role of alcohol concentration below the current legal limit but over the 20mg mark, at which international research suggests driving impairment occurs.

According to his research, 18 male drivers who died in crashes during the period of the study had a blood alcohol level of between 50mg and 80mg.

Eighteen more drivers, 12 men and six women, with blood alcohol concentrations of between 50mg and 20mg, died.

In his report Dr Bedford says a new limit of “50mg/100ml should be introduced in Ireland without delay, with the eventual introduction of a lower limit of 20mg/100ml”.

In 309 crashes, 31 per cent, a blood alcohol level of at least 20mg was present, meaning it was “alcohol-related”, according to Dr Bedford, although he stressed that other factors, such as speeding, may have also played a role.

For 346 crashes, 35 per cent, alcohol was not a factor and in the remaining 34 per cent of crashes, no test was available. In those crashes where alcohol tests were carried out, 47 per cent of drivers had a reading of at least 20mg.

Dr Bedford said the true role of alcohol in fatal crashes in the State was underestimated as there was no reading for blood alcohol in one-third of cases.

Although completed last December, Dr Bedford’s research has not been formally published. Details have emerged as plans by Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey to reduce the drink driving limit have increasingly attracted political opposition, not least from backbenchers and senators in his own party.

Vintners have lobbied vigorously against the plan and circulated a letter to Fianna Fáil TDs in July arguing that the “proposed reduction of the blood alcohol limit from 80mg to 50mg for experienced drivers will have absolutely no effect on the number of road deaths”.

This statement, which was branded “simply untrue” by the Road Safety Authority, would also appear to be contradicted by Dr Bedford’s research.