Cutting the drink-drive deaths

Drivers might be able to drive across Europe without being checked for a passport, but the European Commission hopes that they might be checked by a breathalyser. European Union states are aiming to halve deaths on the roads in the ten years leading to 2010.

Introducing stricter drunk-driving limits and increasing enforcement is one of the aims.

A report by the European Transport Safety Commission published last Thursday (7 June) points to uneven progress on combating drunk-driving.

In the four years after 2001, when member states agreed to try to cut road deaths, France, Belgium, Luxembourg and Portugal all succeeded in cutting road deaths by 25%. A large share of these reductions is attributed to stricter drunk-driving rules and publicity campaigns. The Czech Republic, which cut drunk-driving deaths by 11.3% relative to other auto deaths, has combined more than 400,000 breathalyser tests with a public awareness campaign modelled on Belgium’s ‘Bob campaign.’ The ‘Bob campaign’, begun in 1995, encourages groups to designate one driver to be ‘Bob’, the non-drinking chauffeur. Its success in Belgium has led 14 other EU countries to start their own versions of the campaign.

The focus on cutting drunk-driving deaths has reignited talk of an EU-wide alcohol limit for drivers.

Efforts to set an EU-wide alcohol limit have stalled since the late 1980s.

In 2001 the Commission recomm-ended setting an upper limit for blood-alcohol concentration of 0.05% (ie, 0.5 milligrams of alcohol per millilitre of blood), which is already the limit in most member states. The recommendation cited evidence that this level is safer than the 0.08% limit used by Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Romania and the UK. Some of those states have been resistant to EU pressure to lower the threshold, but Cyprus recently lowered its 0.09% limit to 0.05%, and Luxembourg is discussing lowering its 0.08% limit.

In its response to a Commission review of the EU Road Safety Action Programme, the European Parliament recommended setting a zero limit for novice drivers and for commercial drivers of passengers and hazardous waste.

But low limits are only part of the equation - enforcement is just as important. Many drunk-driving incidents are associated with cross-border traffic and a forthcoming proposal for a new directive on cross-border traffic law enforcement may include drunk-driving enforcement measures. Those measures could include mutual recognition of evidence between the drunk-driver’s country of residence and the country where the offence was committed, leading to prosecution in the country where the offence was committed.

The Commission’s consultation paper on cross-border enforcement says, "such systems have proved to act as a deterrent in countries where they have been implemented, such as the Netherlands and France".

Drinking and driving - the stats

• Drunk-driving deaths have decreased by over 50% in the last decade in the Czech Republic, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands

• Drunk-driving deaths have decreased as fast or faster than other auto deaths in Poland, Slovakia, Latvia, Austria, France and Greece

• Drunk-driving deaths have worsened in Hungary, Lithuania, Finland, Spain, the UK and Sweden

• Roadside screening tests doubled between 2000 and 2005 in the Netherlands - more than 400,000 are carried out each year in the Czech Republic and 9 million in France

• The Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia have a zero limit for blood alcohol content

• Five EU countries have limits above 0.05% - Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Romania and the UK have 0.08% limits

Source: European Transport Safety Council road safety report, June 2007

Drivers might be able to drive across Europe without being checked for a passport, but the European Commission hopes that they might be checked by a breathalyser. European Union states are aiming to halve deaths on the roads in the ten years leading to 2010.