Drink-drive law 'controversial'

A LOWER blood-alcohol limit for young drivers has been rejected by a States working party ' despite drink-driving being more common among them. Health minister Peter Roffey believes that reducing the limit by more than a third will prove controversial when the States discusses the issue at the end of the month.

Among a range of proposals to combat the island's alcohol problem is a recommendation to cut the drink-drive limit from 80mg to 50mg per 100ml blood. The political working party rejected the idea of having different limits for younger people.

The view of various agencies put together to help devise the strategy was that the limit should be 20mg.

'I'm sure from a purely technical point of view they were right. The ideal message is, if you're going to drive, don't drink at all,' said Deputy Roffey.

'But it was felt politically and socially unacceptable, particularly as it would put us in a very small group of countries with similarly low legislation. What we did think was it's right to bring us in line with the international norm of 50mg because once you start to reach that, the level of impairment is fairly significant.'

But he said there was not a right or wrong answer on the level, other than drinking nothing at all.

'We realise this is going to be controversial and one of the battlegrounds when discussing the alcohol strategy.'

He added there was no doubt young people had more car accidents.

'One idea from various professionals, not just health but also law enforcement, was there could be a lower limit for young people than for older.

'The political working party rejected that. We didn't want to be age discriminatory against the young and, more importantly, we don't want to say: 'Now you've reached 25, it's OK'. It's a mixed message when you're trying to say it's best to drink as little as possible.'

Deputy Roffey is confident the cut is the right thing to propose.

'I'm sure it will be contentious and I don't know which way it will go. Luckily, it's not the lynchpin that holds the whole strategy together.

'It would not destroy the rest of the package if the States rejected it.'

France, he said, was regarded as a fairly alcohol-friendly community but had accepted 50mg as the correct limit.

'I don't think we're being puritanical or sanctimonious over this.'