Drunk driver should have been in a coma, warns road safety expert

Gardai mount a random breathalyser checkpoint on the Navan Road, Dublin.

A road user who was caught drunk-driving while nearly eight and a half times over the legal limit for blood alcohol content (BAC) could have been in a coma, according to an expert.

Data published by the Road Safety Authority (RSA) during its Safe and Sober seminar showed that in 2023 the average level of BAC found in drunk-drivers was 159mg per 100ml of blood, while the median was 163mg.

The legal limit is 50mg per 100ml. Shockingly, one driver tested and was found to have a BAC of 439mg per 100ml — more than eight times the legal limit.

Professor Denis Cusack of the Medical Bureau for Road Safety (MBRS), a lead coroner for the State Death Investigation service since the early 1990s, told the Irish Examiner that when you reach a BAC level of over 300mg "you are in serious danger of dying from alcohol poisoning".

"If you have a level over 300mg, you would expect people to be in a coma. I've seen people die from alcohol poisoning at a level of around 250mg.

"The highest I've ever seen is around 600mg and I had to get that level checked because I didn't believe it. I didn't think it was possible for somebody to still be alive at that level."

Alcohol abuse

He said that the figures showed that people were struggling with alcohol use problems.

"It's an extraordinarily dangerously high level. Without commenting on any particular case, if someone is found to have a very high level of alcohol, it probably means that they have a problem because they're able to handle it. What I mean by handle it, I mean they're able to still be alive."

He said that the figures showed that when people were drunk driving, it wasn't a case of them being 'lucky' after having one or two drinks.

Professor Cusack noted that in 2013, the median level was 163mg per 100ml — saying it showed that Ireland "hadn't moved".

However, he noted that Ireland needs to "watch the space" when it comes to drug driving.

"If we are going to take (alcohol and drugs) as intoxicant studies that are going to affect your driving, alcohol is the biggest drug problem. But when you put all the others — cannabis, cocaine, amphetamines — they are almost on a par with alcohol."

Cannabis was the 'biggest' of those issues, according to Professor Cusack.

"Last year, for a certain period, Gardaí were finding that they were seeing drugs driving as much as drunk driving."

Rehabilitation will be key should anyone be taken off the road for 'safety' when it comes to BAC, Professor Cusack noted.