No justification to lower drink-driving limit

THE comments by the Vintners’ Association deserve intelligent debate.

The self-righteous obsession with drink driving precludes objectivity, and is really a diversion to avoid confronting major road safety issues. The casual use of private cars should never have been allowed in the first place — we should start phasing them out for several reasons, including global warming and peak oil. There is no justification for lowering the limit. We should not be criminalising everyone who is unaffected by small amounts of alcohol just because some people are. There are people who have been driving for donkey’s years after consuming two or three pints without ever having an accident and it is plain daft to claim that if someone can function perfectly normally in every way they are unfit to drive. Tests should be measuring impairment, thus including the effect of drugs, illness, disability and tiredness. We now have the crazy situation whereby someone whose driving is impeccable, and who is not drunk, but is over the limit, is treated far more severely than someone who kills with deliberate dangerous driving.

Drink driving is really a car-dependancy issue. we need proper public transport and risk-free cycling and walking.

Michael Job

Glengarriff

Co Cork