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Letter to Jim Fitzpatrick, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Transport, about the drink drive limit.

Dear Minister,

Drink Drive Limits
On behalf of the Local Authority Road Safety Officers Association (LARSOA) I write with grave concern having read the report in this Monday's Times (6 October) that indicates the Government is to scrap the proposed reduction in the drink-drive limit.

LARSOA had welcomed the proposed reduction from 80mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood to 50mg when announced by Sir Liam Donaldson in July of this year, not least because of the estimated 65 lives a year it would save on the UK's roads.

My colleagues and I consider that this decision shows a disregard for not only the hundreds of dedicated road safety professionals who work tirelessly to help make the UK's roads safer, but also the hundreds of thousands of people who use our roads every day, and those bereaved due to drink driving.

Whilst LARSOA accepts that having a zero limit is unrealistic, a cut would mean less people taking the risk of driving under the influence. The quote attributed to you in the Times article states that "Drivers who are between 50 and 80mg are not the ones we are most worried about. It's the ones above 100." We are most concerned about this stance which disregards the fact that any amount of alcohol will impair a driver's ability to keep proper control of a vehicle and means that they are more likely to cause an accident.

We feel that the government should be presenting a clear message that drinking and driving is not acceptable under any circumstances rather than presenting a view that in this Country, we allow drink driving and it is socially acceptable to put peoples lives at risk.

LARSOA would very much appreciate a response in the first instance to explain the reasons why there was no consultation on drink-drive limits, and secondly to fully justify the decision itself.

I look forward to your early response so I may report back promptly to our colleagues in the Local Authorities.

Yours sincerely

Alan Kennedy
Vice-Chair, LARSOA

ABOUT LARSOA

LARSOA is a national road safety organisation representing road safety officers (RSOs) employed in local government across the UK.

LARSOA represents 185 of the 200 eligible local authorities across the UK, assisting RSOs to fulfil their statutory role to reduce the number and severity of road casualties through education, training and publicity programmes.

LARSOA publishes an up-to-date round-up of road safety news from across the UK on its website www.larsoa.org.uk .

LARSOA also aims to influence national debate - government policy and action together with public opinion. The association works to achieve national recognition for road safety issues, commissions research into behaviour which contributes to road collisions and develops national road safety campaigns.

The association assists in identifying achievable national targets to reduce the number of collisions on the country's roads.