Resistance to life-saving zero limit

THE Government has no plans to reduce the legal limit for drinking and driving, despite EU recommendations that the current limit creates a higher risk of accidents.

Wed, 05 Apr, 2006 - 01:00

Sean McCarthaigh

The measure has also been identified by a number of Government-appointed bodies which support a lowering of the limit as an important tool in saving lives.

However, Transport Minister Martin Cullen has ruled out any immediate change to the limit on the recommendation of the High Level Group on Road Safety, which advised the Government on the formulation of its Road Safety Strategy 2004-2006.

It claimed the introduction of a lower blood/alcohol limit, while desirable, would place an unnecessary burden on garda enforcement levels and the workload of forensic laboratories, when the vast majority of those convicted of drink driving offences were already significantly over the existing limit.

A spokesman for Mr Cullen yesterday said the issue of lowering the limit was being "kept under review".

However, such a proposal met with considerable resistance from a sizeable number of TDs and strong lobby groups such as publicans when it was previously considered by the Government.

Some would argue that feelings are unlikely to have changed too much in the intervening period, as a Fianna Fáil member of Clare County Council last January called for rural dwellers to be exempted from drink driving legislation.

Flan Garvey, who represents the Ennistymon area, appealed for a "special understanding" to be shown to people whose only social outlet was the local pub because they drove more carefully and slowly on roads after they had had a few drinks.

In 2000, opposition from the Irish Government forced the European Commission to water down its plans to introduce a blanket upper limit of 50 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood (0.5mg/ml) across the EU. Ireland is one of only four EU member states to have a legal limit of 0.8mg/ml, which was introduced here in 1995. The vast majority of EU states have limits ranging from zero to 0.5mg/ml.

Seven countries - Germany, Italy, Spain, Greece, Denmark, Austria and Cyprus - have all reduced their legal limits from 0.8mg/ml to 0.5mg/ml since 1998 after the EU highlighted how research showed the risk of an accident was twice as high with the upper limit.

It is estimated that between 1% and 5% of all motorists in the EU drive while above their national legal limit for alcohol.

In Ireland, alcohol has been identified as a contributory factor in at least 25% of all traffic collisions and one-third of all fatal accidents.

In other words, drunk drivers are directly responsible for almost 5,600 collisions here each year, including more than 110 which are fatal.

The elimination of fatal traffic accidents caused by drink driving would help the Government to easily achieve the target contained in its Road Safety Strategy of reducing the annual number of road deaths to below 300 by 2006.

Behind-the-scenes representations were made by Irish officials in Brussels in 2000 to prevent the European Commission from issuing a directive compelling all member states to introduce the 0.5mg/ml limit.

European Commission officials at the time criticised the Government for being more concerned about the reaction of those who drink and drive than improving road safety.

However, a survey carried out on behalf of the National Safety Council in 2002 indicated there was considerable public support for a lowering of the drink driving limit. More than two-thirds of respondents agreed that the blood alcohol level should be lowered to 0.5mg/ml.

The lower limit has also been recommended by the Government's own Strategic Task Force on Alcohol, in two reports in 2002 and 2004, as well as a zero limit for provisional drivers.

An independent survey by the Health Promotion Unit to assess public support for the Task Force's recommendations showed 67% supported a reduction from the 0.8mg/ml limit.

Former National Safety Council chairman Eddie Shaw claims the failure of the Fianna Fáil-PD coalition to support efforts by the former EU Transport Commissioner, Loyola de Palacio, to bring in an EU-wide standard limit represented "a missed opportunity".

"It was a fairly typical attitude at the time. It is an issue that politicians consistently run away from - which is exactly what they were doing on that occasion," he observed.

However, Mr Shaw said there were now more pressing matters relating to road safety above considering a fresh look at lowering the drink driving limit.

"We would be much better at enforcing what we have at the moment. If we do that, we would have substantially dealt with the problem," said Mr Shaw.

Former Junior Transport Minister Bobby Molloy defended the Government's reluctance to support the EU-wide measure six years ago.

"I could not see what would be achieved by having a lower limit," said Mr Molloy this week.

However, he said it was "extraordinary" that so little progress had been made on enforcement over the intervening years.

Professor Denis A Cusack, director of the Medical Bureau of Road Safety, said the risk of a road traffic collision at a limit of 0.5mg/ml is double that of zero alcohol content.

"At the 80mg concentration, it is five-fold," said Prof Cusack.

Across the EU, at least 10,000 drivers, passengers, pedestrians and cyclists are killed every year due to collisions caused by drunken motorists.

"When Ireland moved down to the 0.8 limit in 1995, TV ads were used advising people that 'just two will do'. It is inconceivable that anyone would consider using the same ad now, even though the limit is still the same," said one road safety expert.

County by county breakdown

THE road fatality figure for this year passed a grim milestone this week when the number of those killed exceeded 100 in 88 separate collisions around the country.

The Government is set to miss many of the key targets set out in its Road Safety Strategy 2004-2006, designed to reduce the number of deaths on Irish roads.

A recent analysis of 10 of the main objectives highlighted in the strategy, which was launched three years ago by former Transport Minister Seamus Brennan, shows most of the targets relating to greater safety and improved driving behaviour are unlikely to be reached before the end of its timeframe.

Below is a list of the number of fatal crashes county by county:

Kerry - 3

Cork - 10

Galway - 4

Longford - 1

Meath - 7

Tipperary 9

Donegal - 8

Wexford - 8

Leitrim - 1

Dublin - 9

Cavan - 3