Tighter drink driving rules on the way

Alan — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 13:41:35 +0000

A proposal to lower the legal limit of blood alcohol for U.K. drivers would cut the existing limit almost by half, from 80mg to 50mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood. The proposal is being “closely considered” by coalition Ministers and the Department of Transport.

The proposal, drawn up by Sir Peter North as an independent consultant, has the backing of motoring groups including AA, the British Medical Association and, according to numerous surveys, at least 60% of the British public.

Under the proposed changes to the drink-driving law, more than one pint of beer or a fairly large glass of wine would put quite a few people, especially women, over the legal limit.

Other changes proposed in Sir Peter’s recommendations included a new drug-driving offense for any illegal substance found in the blood that could impair driving ability. Tests would include saliva analysis in police stations and random breath testing, with police having the right to stop motorists at any time.

Sir Peter said that this does not constitute a total ban on drinking and driving, but could effectively cut the number of traffic deaths due to alcohol or drug impairment. Recent reports show an average of 430 deaths a year in England and Wales attributed to alcohol, and about 60 to drugs.

The suggestion is that this number could be reduced by almost half with the enforcement of the proposed new laws. If the U.K. does make the changes, it would be joining at least 15 other countries in Europe with similar or even more stringent limitations.

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1cm of snow causes massive traffic disruption in the UK

admin — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 14:08:33 +0000

As a tiny amount of overnight snowfall in the South East caused traffic chaos, TomTom’s HD Traffic service were able to record that on the nation’s roads there was some 1935 miles of traffic in this morning’s peak rush hour on major roads, with the longest queue delaying drivers for nearly 2 hours on the M1 between J14 Milton Keynes and J10 Luton Airport.

The chaos included 896 traffic incidents on major roads, with the longest traffic incident causing some 2 hours of delay in longest traffic incident. These figures do not include local roads, which from our local experience here in South West Surrey is likely to have seriously underestimated the overall impact of the snow which seemed to immediately to turn to a thin layer of ice as it hit the roads following an overnight frost.

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Tighter drink driving rules on the way

1cm of snow causes massive traffic disruption in the UK