Drinking and Driving Solutions

Recently as a result of the North Report 2 (The Revisited) the UK Government outlined it's plans on how to continue the fight against Drinking and Driving.

Some of the measures are welcomed however this must not become a money making, sound bite or lip service to the press exercise.

I have worked with in excess of 18000 convicted Drink Drivers in the UK alone and as such have a unique insight as to why people commit this crime and what we as a society can do about it. The UK Government's response will not stop Drink Driving and will fail to have serious impact on what is fundamentally a disease of sociability.

The Government's insistence that bringing in hand held portable evidential intoximeters and removing blood testing for those who are in a certain banding is without a doubt one of the most ridiculous things in the proposals. Why? Well the intoximeters work on the presumption that there is a defined ratio between blood and breath alcohol concentrations and as such as the majority of people will follow this situation then there can be little error in the intoximeter. This is nonsense and however much the UK Government wish to spin this the reality of the situation is that human beings are different and do not fit into robotic metronomic patterns as far as the physiology of alcohol is concerned.

As a result of this treating everyone the same will ultimately lead to legal challenges that cost time money and effort. Much better to get it right in the first place and develop a system for evidential blood testing that could be a simple and accurate as the testing of blood sugar concentration used by millions of diabetics worldwide.

Secondly the UK Government plans a relaunch of the Drink Driver Rehabilitation Programme.

My question about this is simple. Why wait until after the fact? Why not educate immediately. Take away the old wives tales such as 2 pints and you're ok to drive.

It is far more sensible to prevent than to cure.

If the UK Government is serious about stopping Drinking and Driving within the UK then they need to speak to the people who actually know something about the subject. And much as I respect Sir Peter North he is unfortunately another academic sat in another ivory tower.