Lowering BAC would save lives, academic says

To coincide with the Second Reading of the Road Safety Bill earlier in the month, PACTS published a fresh look at the likely reductions in deaths and serious injuries in drink-drive crashes if the Government lowered the maximum permitted Blood Alcohol Content (BAC) Level from 80mg to 50mg per 100mlle of blood (RoadSafe News, January 2005).

The estimates have been made by Professor Richard Allsop of the Centre for Transport Studies at University College London.

Professor Allsop's conclusions are that a lowering of the current BAC level could be expected to lead to about 65 fewer deaths and 230 fewer serious injuries annually, based on the 2003 road casualty figures.

Professor Allsop's conclusions are based on information originally published or referred to in the 1998 DETR consultation document entitled Combating Drink Driving: Next Steps. This proposed that the BAC should be lowered from 80 to 50, suggesting that such a course of action would save 50 lives per year and around 250 serious injuries.

''Reducing the limit from 80mg to 50mg can be expected to save about 65 lives a year or around half of those who die in accidents where the driver's BAC is within 30mg of the current limit," Professor Allsop said. "Only about one in 50 of those driving during weekend evenings and nights will need to moderate their drinking to achieve this and fewer still at other times.''

The full text of the consultation document can be found at: http://www.dft.gov.uk/stellent/groups/dft_rdsafety