Commissioner and Chief Constable support lower drink drive limit

Police Commissioner, Jason Ablewhite and Chief Constable Alec Wood are today adding their voices to a national campaign calling for a reduction in the national drink drive limit from 80mg to 50mg.

The Institute of Alcohol Studies (IAS), has joined forces with a wide coalition of supporting groups, including BRAKE, the AA, RAC Foundation, and Institute of Advanced Motoring to launch a campaign to gain support in the House of Commons for lowering the drink driving limit.

In a letter to the region’s MPs, Jason says:

“Both the Chief Constable and I are very concerned about the issue of road safety in our county. A number of fatalities on our roads in the last few months has brought the issue into focus and we are keen to pursue a number of strategies to reduce the number of people killed or seriously injured on our roads.

“England and Wales have one of the highest drink drive limits in the world. And it is not only drunk drivers who are affected: nationally 60% of those killed or injured in drink driving incidents are people other than the driver, such as passengers, pedestrians and cyclists.

“Lowering the drink drive limit to 50 mg/100ml blood would reduce drink driving deaths by at least 10%.”

Chief Constable Alec Wood said: “Even a small amount of alcohol in your system can have an impact on your ability to drive, meaning you’re more likely be involved in a serious or even fatal collision.

“We need to be doing all we can to make the roads of Cambridgeshire safer and I believe this change in the law would contribute to those efforts. It would encourage people to think about their actions and send a clear message that drink driving is not acceptable.”

The Institute of Alcohol Studies has produced a two minute animation that explains the key issues.