Yesterday the new Road Traffic Bill which will see a reduction in the acceptable amount of Blood Alcohol Content from 80mg to 50mg was passed through the houses of the Irish Government.
New drink driving law
This bill has not been short of controversy here in Ireland with many publicans and other interest groups claiming that this change in the law would further isolate certain members of society who live in the most rural parts of Ireland. However, here at The Learning Curve Institute, we wholly endorse this new legislation as a very positive step in the right direction towards reducing the amount of alcohol linked deaths on our roads… and it is not just us who support the idea of lowering the legal drinking limits.
A report produced by the Centre for Public Health Excellence just a few days ago concluded that: There is sufficiently strong evidence to indicate that lowering the legal BAC limit for drivers does help reduce road traffic injuries and deaths in certain contexts.
It also concluded that: There is sufficiently strong evidence to indicate that lowering the BAC limit changes the drink-driving behaviour of drivers at all BAC levels. The BAC law appears to act as a general deterrent and the beneficial effects are not just restricted to the drivers at the BAC levels involved.
This is a very positive first step in the fight against a culture of drink driving that we have grown to accept as part of rural Irish living but we feel there is still a lot more that could be done to reduce the number of alcohol related road deaths and injuries even further. A court mandated set of alcohol education classes for the offender has proved to be highly effective in Australia, America and the UK and we at The LCI feel that a programme similar to this could only ever induce positive effects in Ireland too – both as a preventative deterrent and also in terms of rehabilitation.
To read the full “Review of effectiveness of laws limiting blood alcohol concentration levels to reduce alcohol-related road injuries and deaths” carried out by the Centre for Public Health Excellence Click Here. To read about The Alcohol Awareness course currently delivered by The Learning Curve Institute Click Here. If you wish to contact us in relation to any of our study programmes, training or workshops please email info@thelearningcurve.ie or call +353 98 25530.
