Drivers in England, Wales and Northern Ireland are limited to 35 micrograms of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath, the highest limit in Europe, while drivers in Scotland are limited to 22.
A zero-alcohol limit for new drivers would reduce the risk of people driving home after one drink, after which they usually remain under the legal limit.
You’re over a zero limit if you used mouthwash two hours ago.
Idiot stupidity.
ISTR a study some some years ago that showed using empirical evidence that drivers with a shade under the 35 limit were no more of an accident risk than a “sober” driver. All the alcohol-related damage was being done by drivers with a multiple of the limit in their bloodstream. Conclusion was that reducing the limit from 35 to zero would absolutely no effect on the accident rate.
The Agenda (21) is car grabbing. What do you think road closures and “smart” Motorways with the slightly deadly feature of no hard shoulders are all about? Anything to harass and make road users lives a expensive misery.
A21 wants pleb mobility reduced. No planes, no cars and Chinese Maoist bikes for all of us forced into Urban shitholes. Add in Blojob’s 30 % UK back to the wild shite. Does that mean off limits to plebs? I’d bet on it esp if they want bears and wolves and boars to police it for them.
‘they want bears and wolves and boars to police it for them.’
Bring back the sabre-toothed tiger!!!
The point isn’t to make the roads safer, the point is to give the puritans the rhapsodical joy of denying other people even the smallest tincture.
You must have noticed how at certain hours traffic moves at Exactly the speed limit. Euston Road around 11 p.m. or midnight, for example. And how you never see a dodgy tail light.
What Baron Jackfield said.
You’ll also find that all the morons wittering on about speed limits have no conception of speed differentials. i.e. 90mph on a motorway with everyone doing between 80 and 90 is MUCH MUCH safer than a speed limit of 60 with some people doing 30.
Below a certain blood concentration, alcohol functions as a stimulant rather than a depressant. A reasonable hypothesis would be that such a level has minimal (perhaps positive) effect upon driving ability.
There are studies which suggest that drivers with a small amount of alcohol in their blood are ‘better’ than completely sober drivers.
God, I miss the days of One for the Road.
You’re over a zero limit if you used mouthwash two hours ago
Not really, unless you like to drink your mouthwash. Mouth alcohol or other contamination that can confuse the screening device dissipates after fifteen minutes or so. I had to learn all about this stuff for a while so I could start my car – I had this very unreasonable device between me and the ignition that wouldn’t take my solemn word in court that ‘it will never happen again, Your Honour’.
Zero alcohol limits and limited passenger numbers for new drivers is old hat in Australia, I’m surprised to hear you’ve got away without it for so long. First three years of license here is zero limit. But really? 35 (0.035% to me I think, if I’ve got the conversion right, please correct me if not) is the limit in the UK for a previously non-naughty driver? That’s pretty low.
@Ltw
Those are figures for a breath test, not blood alcohol, for which the equivalent figure is 80 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood. Everyone’s blood will contain trace amounts of alcohol, even if they’ve been teetotal all their lives, so ‘zero alcohol in blood’ is not a meaningful test.
Everyone’s blood will contain trace amounts of alcohol
I’m aware of that. It’s why my interlock would let me start the car with a reading of up to 0.01%, despite the putative zero requirement. Difference between marketing and reality. But mouthwash still won’t get you a breath reading that high, or at least not for long.
the equivalent figure is 80 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood
Ok, so 0.08% BAC in our terminology. Makes more sense, thank you.