Safety body to seek lower alcohol limit for drivers

The Road Safety Authority (RSA) is to recommend reducing the legal alcohol limit for drivers as part of its upcoming road safety strategy.

It wants the blood alcohol limit reduced to 50mg/100ml, compared to the current level of 80mg/100ml. This would bring Ireland into line with countries such as Germany and France, which are regarded as leading the way in reducing road deaths.

In Sweden, one of the most progressive countries for road safety, the limit is 20mg. When it reduced its limit in 1990, fatal alcohol-related crashes fell by 10 per cent.

The draft strategy is also expected to include ambitious targets to reduce the number of people killed on the roads to between 200 and 250 per annum.

The last road safety strategy (2004 to 2006) set a target of no more than 300 people per year being killed in crashes.

However, this target was missed and 368 people died in crashes last year. A delay in the introduction of random breath-testing, which came into force last July, was partially responsible for the target not being met.

As of yesterday evening, 179 people have died on the roads in the Republic this year, 37 fewer than by the same date in 2006, with random breath-testing seen as largely responsible for the reduced death toll. In more than four out of 10 fatal crashes, alcohol is a factor.

Under the new road safety strategy, improvements in the quality of information about serious injuries in crashes will also be sought. This is expected to lead to a request that hospitals consider changing their patient admission forms to include a new category indicating the injuries were sustained during a road crash.

This would allow the Health Service Executive and road safety agencies to better research the number and types of serious injuries arising from crashes.

A range of road safety bodies including the National Roads Authority, An Garda, local authorities and the insurance industry have made recommendations to the RSA on the new strategy.

Another aspect of drink-driving the strategy is expected to address, albeit briefly, is testing for alcohol of drivers involved in crashes. Road safety groups have called for the discretion given to gardaí in this area to be replaced by a mandatory test.

The new strategy is expected to call for this legislation to be reviewed.

International road safety expert Fred Wegman, director of the Dutch Road Safety Research Institute, was commissioned by the RSA to examine Ireland's progress on road safety up to the end of 2006. He has made a number of recommendations, which have been factored into the upcoming strategy.

Many of the proposed changes will require legislation and a new Road Traffic Bill is expected next year.

Blood Alcohol Limits

Recommended50mg/100ml

Current  80mg/100ml

1978100mg/100ml

1966125mg/100ml