Will lowering blood alcohol content equates to less road accidents?

This is the opinion held by the Automobile Association (AA) on the new proposed amendments to the National Road Traffic Act.

The amendment of Section 65, effectively changes the legal blood alcohol content (BAC) limit for drivers from 0.05 grams per 100 millilitres to 0.00g/100ml, and the breath alcohol concentration from 0.24g/1 000ml to zero.

“These proposed changes are concerning on a number of levels and although the stated reason for the change is the promotion of road safety, within the current framework of traffic law enforcement, nothing will change, except that innocent drivers are likely to be criminalised,” says the AA.

Medication containing alcohol can then lead to the arrest of a driver despite the fact that their driving ability has not been impaired.

The association says the proposed amendment is again making motorists soft targets for traffic law enforcers, and that the desired outcomes of improved road safety will not be met.

“How will traffic law enforcement change to accommodate this proposed amendment? And, perhaps more importantly, how will a single piece of legislation change driver’s attitudes when nothing else around traffic law enforcement changes at the same time,” the AA asks?

“Without proper and implementable actions, we don’t believe the amendments relating to the alcohol levels will have a material impact on our abysmal road fatality statistics,” says the AA.

Many experts, the AA included, are of the opinion that legislation on its own and without road safety education, and an increase in visible traffic policing, will not render the required results – the latter being, the lowering of road deaths.

The association notes, “We need to be in a situation where people are afraid to drive if they have been drinking, and we stand by our message of ‘drink or drive’. However, within this framework, and the interventions we have outlined, we believe a reduction of the BAC limit to 0.02g/100ml would be a more effective, just, and appropriate approach to drunk driving in the country”.

“We cannot have a situation where authorities are amending legislation in the hope that this will change our shocking crash statistics.”

“The average of 13 000 deaths on our roads annually is a national crisis and amending this one piece of legislation is not going to make a difference unless those interventions we mention all the time are also implemented,” concluded the AA.

Source: AA