:: press release ::

November 10, 2008

DRINK DRIVE LIMIT MUST BE LOWERED

Tomorrow sees DUP Assembly Member Alastair Ross propose a motion at the Assembly which will allow Members to debate the viability of reducing the existing drink drive legal limit to bring it into line with the rest of Europe.

Speaking ahead of the debate Mr Ross said,

‘Drink drive advertising campaigns are usually more prevalent in the run up to the Christmas season but this is in every sense an all year round issue which must be examined and discussed.

I hope that the motion in my name for the reduction in the legal limit from 80mg of alcohol in the bloodstream to 50mg or lower will gain all party support.

This lower level is already in practice in Europe and when we consider the amount of road traffic accidents here in Northern Ireland it is clear we need to do something to curb bad cultural habits of our drivers.

Our bodies carry a natural amount of alcohol already so a zero-limit is impossible; a zero-tolerance attitude however is not.

Evidence shows that even at an eighth of the current legal limit a drivers ability to execute the basic skills required to drive are diminished by alcohol in the bloodstream, and a driver who has been drinking is two and a half times more likely to be involved in a road traffic accident.

In Northern Ireland last year, more than 600 drivers were caught drink driving which was a rise on the previous year.

We need to make it very clear that drink driving is anathema to the people of Northern Ireland; we need only to look at the figures for 2007/8 when Northern Ireland saw 431 drink drive road accidents, 661 casualties of which 18 people were killed and 143 seriously injured.

The Chief Medical Officer, the BMA and some 80% of the public support the proposal to lower the limit and I hope that we can see movement on this issue so that Northern Ireland can lead the way in the UK in terms of road safety. All party support tomorrow would send out a powerful message to those who would consider driving after drinking alcohol, especially over the upcoming festive period.’