Lower drink-driving limit an evasion strategy to placate the road lobby
The vintners opposition to the lower drink driving limit is pathetic. Loss of jobs is not a valid justification in itself.
However, drink-driving has become something of a fetish. The assumption that lowering the limit will save lives has been made without any intelligent, scientific statistical studies and analyses being made.
Nor have the lives lost by diverting scarce garda resources from tackling the main forms of dangerous driving been addressed.
It appeals to the self-righteous. As long as one is under the limit, any sort of careless, stupid or dangerous driving is OK. For the spindoctors in the RSA/AA, and politicians, it is an evasion strategy to avoid taking the draconian measures necessary to reduce the road carnage that would upset motorists and the road lobby. Motoring offences are not taken seriously enough in Ireland. Causing death by dangerous driving would result in imprisonment in most countries, but it is considered as trivial as a parking offence or no NCT certificate offence here. What sort of lunatic society severely punishes someone who is perfectly sober and whose driving is impeccable but is over the limit than someone who recklessly kills another human being?
The drink-driving problem is a car dependency problem more than it is a drink problem. Where there is proper public transport no one needs to drink and drive. Without public transport people are forced to drive everywhere, whether they want to or not, even if they are tired, ill, disabled on prescription drugs or even insane.
The casual use of private motor vehicles should never have been allowed in the first place – they are far too dangerous. It is becoming imperative that private cars be phased out and proper bus services, trams and railways reintroduced. This needs to be done anyway to tackle peak oil and global warming.
Michael Job
Glengarriff
Co Cork
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