Aussie drink-driving laws have similar penalties, but our BAC level is still at .05. This will be moved to .02 in the coming years. Be safe for you, your family and the person you may injure because, you thought you were ‘ok to drive!’
SHOULD YOU BE DRIVING? DON'T DRINK AND DRIVE....EVER!
Imagine if you had to tell a family that their child was never coming home again...because a driver had a few too many drinks and they were too lazy to get a taxi? How would you feel if it was your child? Your brother, your parent, your best friend? Now imagine that you're the one who had a few drinks and thought...Home isn't too far. I'll make it without getting busted. While on the back streets worrying if the booze bus will catch you, you hit someone. How do you live with that for the rest of your life?
The European Union should introduce a zero-tolerance drink-driving limit in 2020 as part of a package of measures to help prevent up to 5,000 alcohol-linked road deaths every year, according to the European Transport Safety Council, authors of a new report.
The EU has recently set a target to reduce deaths and serious injuries on the road by half by 2030 (1). A quarter of the 25,000 EU road deaths each year are likely to be linked to alcohol, according to European Commission estimates. Therefore more progress on tackling drink driving is essential to reaching the overall target.
Ellen Townsend, Policy Director of ETSC said:
“Almost 70 years since the first scientific evidence was published on the link between drink-driving and road deaths – it is impossible to accept that thousands of families are still being ripped apart every year in the EU because of it. In 2020, we want to see the EU and Member States, coming up with a vision to end drink-driving once and for all with a combination of zero-tolerance limits, a big step-up in enforcement and wider use of technology such as mandatory use of alcohol interlocks in buses, lorries and vans.”
Around 2,654 people were officially recorded killed in alcohol-related collisions in 23 EU countries in 2018, according to the new ETSC report. But the true figures are likely to be significantly higher due to underreporting and problems with data collection.
Currently only seven out of 28 EU countries have a standard Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) limit of 0.2 g/l or below. 0.1 and 0.2 are effectively equivalent to zero tolerance, while still allowing for consumption of certain medicines, or drinks marketed as alcohol free. 19 have a limit of 0.5, while Lithuania has 0.4. The UK currently has the highest standard limit of 0.8, though Scotland has set a lower limit of 0.5. Many countries also set lower limits for professional and/or novice drivers. (2)
13 EU countries are cutting drink-driving deaths at a faster rate than overall declines in road deaths, according to the new research. In contrast, the UK, Cyprus, Belgium, Estonia, Hungary, Sweden and Slovakia all appear to be tackling drink-driving at a slower rate than the overall progress.
More Queenslanders will have to pass breath tests on devices in their cars before they can drive them under new laws designed to reduce deaths on the roads.
The laws expand an alcohol interlock program that requires sentenced drink-drivers to unlock their cars by passing a breath test on an attached device.
The program will now apply to mid-range drink-drivers with a blood alcohol level between 0.10 and 0.149, under the laws that passed in parliament as it sat in Townsville on Wednesday.
Transport and Main Roads Minister Mark Bailey said 63 people died on Queensland roads last year because of drink-drivers.
"The year before it was 43 people. This is unacceptable," Mr Bailey said.
Mid-range drink-drivers account for more than a quarter of all drink-driving offenders and have a crash risk 20 times greater than someone who hasn't had a drink.
Under the new laws, drink-drivers will need to have an alcohol interlock in their vehicle until they can show a consistent record of clear breath tests over time.
Alcohol is still a factor in about a quarter of traffic deaths in Queensland, research has found. QUT’s Centre of Accident Research and Road Safety - Queensland (CARRS-Q) analysed the database of Queensland road crashes from 1981 to 2017.
They found about 25 per cent of drivers and riders killed on the state’s roads in the last five years of that period were over the 0.05 legal blood alcohol limit.
But Professor Barry Watson said the research showed road safety had come a long way in 40 years. “In the early 1980s, drink driving really was an epidemic in the community, and about 50 per cent of the drivers and riders who were killed had a BAC above 0.05,” Professor Watson said.
“So, over those 40 years we’ve been able to effectively halve the problem, but on the other side of things the fact that it’s still around 25 per cent of fatalities is a concern.
About 70 percent of those who engage in simultaneous alcohol and marijuana use reported simultaneous use at least weekly
A new study from Penn State found that compared to people who only drank alcohol, those who used alcohol and marijuana simultaneously were more likely to drink heavier and more often. They were also more likely to experience alcohol-related problems -- like impulsive actions they later regretted.
"The results suggest that individuals who simultaneously use alcohol and marijuana are at a disproportionately higher risk for heavy, frequent, and problematic substance use," said Ashley Linden-Carmichael, assistant research professor at the Edna Bennett Pierce Prevention Research Center at Penn State.
The researchers said the findings -- recently published in the journal Substance Use and Misuse-- also suggest that prevention and intervention programs should take into account not just alcohol, but also if people are using additional substances, as well.
According to the researchers, marijuana use is at an all-time high among young adults in the U.S., possibly leading to people using marijuana and alcohol simultaneously.
"The problem with simultaneous use is that it can affect people cognitively and perceptually, and also have an impact on motor impairment," Linden-Carmichael said. "There is a burgeoning area of research that is examining why people are using marijuana and alcohol together and what those effects are."
The NRMA-owned Manly Fast Ferry has confirmed it stood some deckhands down after they tested "non-negative" for illicit drugs on Monday, as revealed by the Herald's CBD column on Friday.
With fewer staff available, the NRMA said it had been forced to reduce the frequency of some of its tourist services that travel between stops including Taronga Zoo and Darling Harbour on Friday.
But a spokeswoman said Manly to Circular services were unaffected and it expects normal schedule times to operate across the weekend.
"Some deckhand staff returned non-negative results and others who did not make themselves available for the random drug test have been stood down indefinitely," a NRMA spokeswoman said.
"We’ve done this to give our passengers assurance around safety and that we have a zero tolerance policy around illicit drug use," the spokeswoman said.
The NRMA, which operates 11 fast ferry vessels through a subsidiary, is locked in a dispute with the Maritime Union over worker pay which has lasted for months.
An NRMA spokeswoman said the CFMMEU, of which the Maritime Union is a part, was notified when the staff were stood down.
But the spokeswoman declined to say how many ferry workers were stood down or what drugs were allegedly in their system because the company has not informed other workers. It is understood that will happen on Monday.
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