Over the limit: How to reduce drink-driving accidents

In response to the report’s findings, the RAC said that data compiled on drivers’ habits found around five million of them admitting they may have got behind the wheel while over the legal limit once in the preceding 12 months.

This seems like an unbelievably high figure but unfortunately the drink-drive debate is dogged by questionable statistics, claims and counter-claims. For example, one drink-drive expert I spoke to claimed the latest Department for Transport figures show the number of people killed in road accidents where a motorist was over the drink-drive limit has risen 25% in two years – from 200 deaths to 250. However, Davies advises against using the figure of 200 deaths, recorded in 2015, in this way since it’s a statistical outlier that can’t be relied upon.

Meanwhile, two alcohol addiction experts contradicted each other on matters as fundamental as how the body processes alcohol and adapts to its long-term consumption, while one of them suggested the other’s links to the temperance movement may have coloured their judgement.

At least England’s drink-drive limit cannot be disputed. It’s 80mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood. If you’re stopped by the police, breathalysed and found to be over that, you may receive a three-month prison sentence, a £2500 fine or a driving ban. These penalties also apply in Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, the limit is lower, at 50mg per 100ml of blood. Penalties include a minimum 12-month driving ban, up to six months in prison and an unlimited fine.

The stubborn refusal of drink-drive-related deaths to fall below 240 a year since 2010 has led safety campaigners to call for England’s alcohol limit to be reduced in line with Scotland’s. Even then, it would be among the highest in the world. For example, Norway’s and Poland’s limit is 20mg.

“The law and society’s condemnation of drink-driving have succeeded in discouraging the casual drink-drivers,” says Dr Peter Rice, a psychiatrist and trustee of the IAS. “Now we have to target the hardcore of repeat offenders, some of them older drivers. Lowering the limit to 50mg in England would send out a strong message to these people.”

In England, the average drink-driver is twice the legal limit and Davies is not convinced that, on its own, lowering the limit would achieve the hoped-for reduction in drink-drivers and casualties: “Unless you step up enforcement, you’re not going to succeed. In Scotland, they cut the limit supported by a big awareness campaign but their roads policing didn’t change much and research has not shown a reduction in casualties. So cutting the limit in England would not necessarily save lives. What will is more enforcement."

We try a one-off breathalyser experiment at home

An individual’s sex, age, height and weight affect how they process alcohol. That said, most of us do so at the rate of one unit, or 8mg, every hour. A large, 250ml glass of average-strength wine (12% alcohol) or a pint of higher-strength lager (5.2%) contains three units.

But how do these units relate to the way we feel and the breathalyser reading we provide? I, a 59-year-old male, 1.8m in height and weighing 76kg, tried to find out using a 175ml wine glass, a bottle of Rioja containing 13.5% alcohol, a hearty meal and a state-of the-art breathalyser called the AlcoSense Elite 3. It’s aimed at the morning-after driver but I figured it would do as a guide. Here’s what happened…