UK Government denies abandoning plans to lower drink-driving limit
The Coalition Government in the UK has denied that it is to abandon plans to cut the drink-driving limit there to 50mg per 100 ml on the grounds that lowering the limit to under a pint would damage rural pubs and criminalise millions of moderate drivers who need their car in the country in order to even get to a pub.
The Department of Transport is still considering moves to lower the limit there as one of 51 recommendations commissioned by the previous government, it claims.
A newspaper report recently stated that Government sources had indicated that Transport Secretary Philip Hammond was far from convinced that the move would save that many lives while it’s likely to devastate the rural pub trade.
Neither was he convinced that the 50mg limit would deter those who drink and drive way over the present limit and cause fatalities on the road in the process, reported the newspaper.
Last June, a review of the drink-driving limit was undertaken by Sir Peter North who concluded that a new limit of 50mg per 100ml of blood should be set.
Road safety groups have condemned the decision, pointing out that a 50mg limit would save up to 300 lives a year there, a moot point, feel some ministers.
It’s now reported that a decision is unlikely before November.
