Scotland to ‘set an example’ by lowering drink drive limit?

Whilst down south our MP’s shy away from the lowering of the drink drive limit, it seems matters may have progressed north of the Border.

On Tuesday, the Scotland Bill was revealed by the UK Government to contain plans to hand over new powers to Holyrood, including the control over the legal alcohol limit for motorists.

With 1 in 9 deaths in Scotland involving someone over the current drink-drive limit, this is welcome news to the Royal Society for the Prevention Of Accidents (RoSPA) in Scotland.

RoSPA road safety officer Kathleen Braidwood said: “Although we believe the best option is for a lower limit to be applied across the UK, we strongly support the transfer of powers to Scotland so it can lower its drink-drive limit to 50 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood.

“We hope this would set an example that the rest of the UK might follow.”

“For many years, RoSPA has called for the current limit of 80 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood to be lowered to 50 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood, a move which should also be supported by wider powers for the police to conduct random breath tests.”

Come on UK, surely it’s time we caught up with the rest of Europe?