Drink Driving

A recent survey, (released 2 days ago) showed that young people have a worrying perception of the amount of alcohol they can consume before testing positive in a roadside breathalyser test. People interviewed, aged between 18 and 34, believed they could have four and a half glasses of beer or wine before reaching the (failure level) 0.5g of alcohol per litre of blood.

The facts are, for a male of average build, the amount of alcohol allowed by law is equivalent to just one and a half glasses of beer or two glasses of wine. For women, the quantities would be considerably less, equating to just one glass of beer or one and a half glasses of wine.

As far as young people's perception of risk was concerned, 7.1% believed that their driving ability did not diminish even after six drinks, 33% felt the same was true after three drinks and 80% believed that they drove equally well after one drink as they did before consuming any alcohol.

28.9% of those surveyed admitted to having driven under the influence of alcohol in the last three months, or to having been a passenger in a car whose driver was under the influence, but despite this, 83% of the young people interviewed were in favour of a zero-limit for novice drivers.
The survey also revealed the prevalence of old wives' tales when it comes to ways of reducing the alcohol in your bloodstream, from cold showers, to drinking coffee to waiting an hour before driving. The most popular myth of all, believed by over 60% of those surveyed, was that sleeping in the car for a while before driving would reduce alcohol levels.

Lluis Puerto, head of road safety for the RACC, pointed out that alcohol was a factor in between 30 and 50% of all accidents and that the combination of 'young people, cars and alcohol' was a 'high risk' combination.
It is little wonder then, that Spain is the country, with the greatest percentage increase in traffic accident fatalities, with positive alcohol blood tests between 1996 and 2005.

The most worrying thing to come out of the survey is the admission of 53% of those surveyed said, that they had not reduced their alcohol consumption in the last three years, despite the fact that the law had become more stringent.

One can only hope that government departments will sit up and take notice of this survey, and redress this situation.