Proposed Zero Drink Drive Tolerance For Young Drivers

Monday, 4. August 2008

When I first started driving I drove an Austin Nash-Metropolitan, a rather cool car with a bench seat, column gearchange, low slung windows that you could really lean out of and wait for it – a built in valve radio that could pick up the pirates a treat although it did take a trip of more than 20 minutes to warm up! I could snuggle up to the latest squeeze whilst driving with my right arm nearly scraping the road whilst squeeling round corners on two remoulds a cross ply and a radial (Pirelli – naturally) having been to a disco and drunk to the point of being probably twice the legal drink drive limit by today’s standards then believing that I could drive at least as well as my namesake on the A4 through the middle of Slough. Now if you have the slightest inkling as to what I am talking about you must be as old as me and probably look back at those early years of driving and feel sorry for the youngsters of today who will never (or shouldn’t) experience the joy of driving a car whilst tanked up or overtaking another car more than once a month other then on a motorway or dual carriageway. Now anyone that reads my newsletter on a regular basis knows my views on drink driving, we should reduce the acceptable level from 80mg to the more common level in Europe of 50mg and like me you shouldn’t drink and drive but with all the regulations and fuel costs escalating driving is no longer a joy as it was in my day which is sad. However, as we become more safety aware it is hardly surprising that teenagers could be restricted further following a call by the Government’s chief medical officer for teenagers to be banned if they have any alcohol at all in their system after a road accident. He wants the legal blood alcohol limit for drivers aged between 17 and 20 to be reduced to zero. His justification is that about 1,000 15 to 24 year olds die each year in accidents most of which are transport accidents. These rates have remained steady over the last 5 years so it’s about time we did something to reduce this number according to Sir Liam Donaldson, the author of the report. He pointed out that those aged between 15 and 24 were twice as likely to die in a transport accident than any other age group. Whilst the RAC said it would be unworkable and suggested a lowering across the board to 50mg this zero tolerance does work in other countries and when introduced in Canada Ontario saw a 19% drop in young driver crashes. Of course we must try to save lives but it’s sad that the kids of today will never experience the fun of driving that I did as a teenager and throughout my 20’s. By Graham Hill