Slashing alcohol limits part of new road strategy for NZ

By SCOTT MacLEOD

The Government is under pressure to cut the legal drink-driving limit.

Road safety groups, including police, the Ministry of Transport and ACC, say cutting the alcohol limit per 100ml of blood from 80mg to 50mg will save 32 lives and $140 million each year.

The move is opposed by the alcohol industry, which argues that halving the limit would punish people who enjoyed a couple of wines over dinner, rather than targeting heavy drinkers and repeat offenders.

The suggestion is one of many made by police, Transit NZ, the Land Transport Safety Authority, ACC and Ministry of Transport in a discussion paper called Road Safety Strategy 2010. The idea is to save 200 lives on the roads each year by 2010.

The police national road safety manager, Superintendent Steve Fitzgerald, yesterday cited figures from researchers at Monash University in Melbourne suggesting that a 50mg limit would save 32 lives and 640 injuries each year.

The figures were based on results from Australian states that switched to a 50mg limit.

Last year, 58 out of 273 drivers and bike riders killed in accidents were thought to have been been over the limit. The LTSA estimates that at the present 80mg limit, a driver is three times as likely to crash than if he or she were sober.

The chief executive of the Beer, Wine and Spirits Council, Nicki Stewart, condemned drink driving but said the community had already been given a strong message about the practice.

Since 1990, drink-driving deaths have fallen by 63 per cent, or about 170 fatal smashes each year. But there were still 26,000 drink driving offences last year.

Estimates in Road Safety Strategy 2010 show that cutting the blood-alcohol limit will shave $140 million each year from the social cost of road crashes.

The social cost includes loss of life, limb and earnings, hospital bills, legal costs, property damage and other factors.

All Australian states now have 50mg limits, and the European Union is urging its 15 states to adopt that limit. The Government is expected to decide on the drink-drive level by the end of the year.

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