Skip to main content

UK road safety charity calls for drivers to stay sober

UK road safety charity Brake is calling on drivers to stay sober if driving over the Christmas period or plan to get home by taxi or public transport, to prevent road casualties. Brake is renewing calls for a zero tolerance drink drive limit of 20mg alcohol per 100ml of blood, in line with evidence which claims that even one drink dramatically increases crash risk and to send a clear message it should be none for the road. Brake says a blood alcohol level of 20-50mg increases the likelihood of crashing t
December 19, 2016 Read time: 2 mins
UK road safety charity 4235 Brake is calling on drivers to stay sober if driving over the Christmas period or plan to get home by taxi or public transport, to prevent road casualties.

Brake is renewing calls for a zero tolerance drink drive limit of 20mg alcohol per 100ml of blood, in line with evidence which claims that even one drink dramatically increases crash risk and to send a clear message it should be none for the road. Brake says a blood alcohol level of 20-50mg increases the likelihood of crashing three-fold.

The call comes on the back of a recent survey by Brake and Direct Line which showed that more than three-quarters of drivers thought the current drink-drive limit too high.

Brake also called on the government to take action on drink driving. The Scottish Government introduced a lower limit of 50mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood in December 2014. The rest of the UK still retains an 80mg limit, higher than all other EU countries except Malta. Road Safety Scotland launched its drink-drive campaign this month.
UTC

Related Content

  • October 29, 2013
    Drivers wary of safety benefits of EU vehicle control
    Research by the UK’s Institute of Advanced Motorists (IAM) has found that three quarters of drivers are concerned that the use of intelligent speed adaptations (ISAs) will compromise safety. Last month, the EU announced that it was considering rules for new cars to be installed with ISA technology, which would be capable of detecting speed limits through cameras or satellites and automatically applying the brakes. Existing vehicles could be forced to be retrofitted with the devices.
  • January 30, 2012
    Managed motorways, hard shoulder running aids safety, saves time
    The announcement that, in 2012/13, work to extend Managed Motorways to Junctions 5-8 of the M6 near Birmingham in the West Midlands is scheduled to start marks the next step for the UK's hard shoulder running concept, first introduced on the M42 in 2006. The M6 scheme is in fact one of several announced; over the next few years work will start on applying Managed Motorways to various sections of the M1, M25 London Orbital, M60 and M62. According to Paul Unwin, senior project manager with the Highways Agency
  • May 16, 2012
    Americans want more action and enforcement to improve highway safety
    At a time when there is intense debate about the role of government, a majority of Americans support additional laws and want more action by government officials to improve highway safety, a new survey released yesterday by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety claims.
  • January 23, 2012
    Changing driving conditions need ongoing driver training
    Trevor Ellis, chairman of the ITS UK Enforcement Interest Group, considers the role of ongoing driver training in increasing compliance. It is over 30 years since I passed my driving test. The world was quite a different place then, in that there were only half the vehicles there are now on the UK's roads, mobile phones did not really exist and (in the UK at least) the vast majority of us drove cars which by today's standards exhibited dreadful dynamic stability and were woefully underpowered.