New Drink Driving Laws

North Review of Drink & Drug Driving Law
AA recommendations accepted

16 June 2010

Commenting on the North Review of the Drink and Drug Driving Laws, Edmund King, AA President, said: "The Automobile Association has long been highlighting the hidden problems of drugs and driving so we are delighted that these issues are being addressed.

"We are pleased that Sir Peter has followed our verbal and written recommendations on many of these issues and made use of our AA/Populus panel results to ascertain the views of the motoring public.

"Our members want action on drug driving and also support a reduction in the drink drive limit together with a 12 month ban."

Drink driving accounts for some 430 deaths per year and if better records were kept we estimate that an extra 215 deaths may be due to drug driving or a combination of drugs and alcohol. Hence a quarter of all road deaths are caused by drink or drug driving so it is essential that further action is taken.

The AA believes that more focus needs to be given to the problems of drug driving.

We are pleased that Sir Peter has made positive recommendations on screening devices, a clarification of the law and a call for coroners to test for the presence of drugs in road fatalities.

We would like to thank Sir Peter and his team for their work on these important subjects.

AA Recommendations
The following recommendations were proposed by the AA and are included in the North report recommendations.

Drink Driving
•Lowering of drink drive limit to 50mg/100ml
•Review 20mg limit for new drivers after 5 years
•Maintain a 12 month ban at 50mg
•Target cars of high risk offenders
•Deployment of portable evidential breath testing equipment
•Higher policing priority
•79% AA members support random breath tests
Drug Driving
•Coroners should test for drugs in all fatalities
•Volunatray roadside saliva tests
•Greater use of Field Impairment tests (FIT) and training
•Drug driving to be made an 'offence brought to justice'
•Speed up the process with use of nurses rather than forensic physicians
•Look to type approval of police station drug screening kits
•Look to a specific offence of driving with certain controlled drugs at levels deemed impairing
•Better NHS training and clearer labelling On legal drugs
Information about the Review and its terms of reference can be found on the North Review website.