This week I heard about the possibility of increasing the restriction on the amount of alcohol you can drink before you drive illegally. After a drink the blood level of alcohol varies from person to person. It also depends on how much they have been eating, how long it has been since their previous alcoholic drink, their metabolism and many other aspects. The list was quite long and so was the confusion as to how much people could drink. However it was simplified by the police. You will be under the limit if you don't drink anything.
The trouble with an absolute ban on alcohol is that you are saying people cannot drive with any impairment in their ability. Why not ban anyone over 70 or 60 or 50 because their reactions are not as good as when they were younger. Their ability is not as good as when they were younger. What about a person who has a cold or any other temporary illness? What about anyone who feels unhappy or has something on their mind? Have I stopped everyone driving yet? An absolute ban on alcohol would mean an absolute ban on drinking for every driver as some alcohol may stay in the system for a long time.
As with any legislation, it is easy to see extremes when someone who is drunk should not be driving, and as with any legislation the tricky part is to know when to draw the line. The important thing is to win the hearts and minds of drinkers so that dangerous extremes are avoided. As you may have guessed, I do not advocate an outright ban but maybe there is a case for tighter restrictions.
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"Why not ban anyone over 70 or 60 or 50 because their reactions are not as good as when they were younger. Their ability is not as good as when they were younger."
ReplyDeleteA better idea would be to ban driving under the age of about 25. Young drivers have a truly appalling record of carnage on our roads.
An older driver, with a lifetime's experience, is likely (a) to be more aware of their own limitations in terms of falling reaction speed etc. (b) to have better hazard appreciation as a reuslt of their driving experience and is likely to moderate their driving accordingly. As far as I can see a lot of young drivers think they know it all the moment they have passed their tests and are a menace to everyone else on the roads.
Going back to the zero alcohol issue - as I understand it there would be a problem over traces of alcohol left from some medicines.
It is very difficult to establish what level of blood alcohol would be absolutely safe. Perhaps the limit should be set at around 20 mg to allow for medicinal trace problems and to encourage people not to drive on the same day when they have had a drink