Forty years of the breathalyser
October 12th, 2007. Posted in Motoring & Driving NewsThe 40th anniversary of breathalyser testing took place on 9th October and the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents took the opportunity to step up its campaign to persuade Government to reduce the limit to 50mg per 100ml
Thousands of deaths and serious injuries have been avoided since October 1967, when the current drink-drive limit (80mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood) became a legal requirement and roadside testing was introduced. At the time, it was said that drinking before driving led to about 13,000 fatal and serious casualties each year. By 1987, the figure for people killed or seriously injured in crashes involving illegal alcohol levels had dropped to 6,800 and by last year it had fallen to 2,500.
Despite this tremendous success, there is still a need for a cut in the drink-drive limit because the consistent fall in drink-drive fatalities ceased at the end of the 1990s.
Last year, of the 3,172 people killed on Britain’s roads, 540 died in accidents involving illegal alcohol levels. In 1999, the figure was 460.
In the 10 months before October 1967, 28 per cent of drivers and riders killed had blood-alcohol levels of more than 80mg per 100ml. In the following 12 months, the percentage fell to 15 per cent. But in 2006, it was 20 per cent.
