A drink driver who was caught two-and-a-half times above the limit in a Land Rover has been banned from the road.

Zacharias Preece, from Ludlow, was caught in the Land Rover Discovery on Eastmead, Stoke Prior, Leominster on October 21 this year.

A test found that Preece had 94 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. The legal limit in England and Wales in 35mcg. He was also not insured to drive the Land Rover.

Preece, of The Avenue, Wyson, Brimfield, Ludlow, pleaded guilty at Hereford Magistrates Court to driving a motor vehicle while above the alcohol limit, and using a motor vehicle without third party insurance.

Magistrates banned him from driving for two years and fined him £576. He was also ordered to pay £135 in prosecution costs and a £230 surcharge.

https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/crime/2023/12/18/hefty-fine-and-ban-for-ludlow-drink-driver-24-caught-two-and-a-half-times-the-limit-in-land-rover/

On 18/12/2023 08:46 am, Simon Mason wrote:

[Nothing of any relevance to ukrc and in particular, nothing about
chav-bikes and the chavs who ride them.]

Road safety and health experts, along with emergency services, have renewed appeal to the government to reduce drink-drive limit in England and Wales.

The move follows new statistics which show that drink-driving figures have shown no improvement since 2010.

The figure of 240 people killed in collisions where at least one driver was over the drink-drive limit is unchanged from 2013.

The new campaign for a lower limit is being led by the Institute of Alcohol Studies (IAS) and supported by a number of stakeholders including the RAC Foundation, the AA, IAM RoadSmart Brake, PACTS and the Police Federation.

The current 80mg limit in England in Wales was set in 1965, but in 2014, Scotland lowered its drink-drive limit to 50mg/100ml - bringing it in line with the rest of Europe.

Malta is now the only country with a drink-drive limit as the England and Wales, and is also set to lower its limit to 50mg/100ml.

According to the IAS, reducing the limit to 50mg/100ml would save at least 25 lives per year.

Also, Department for Transport statistics show that drink driving costs Great Britain £800m each year, and a British Social Attitudes Survey shows 77 per cent of the public support a lower legal limit.

Katherine Brown, director at the Institute of Alcohol Studies, said: “Recent decades have seen great improvements in road safety, but progress on drink driving has ground to a halt.

“With hundreds of lives lost each year, we can’t afford to let England and Wales fall behind our neighbours in road safety standards.

“It’s time the Government looked at the evidence and what other countries are doing to save lives and make roads safer. We need to make drink driving a thing of the past, and to do this we need a lower drink drive limit.”

The IAS has produced a two-minute animation in support of the new campaign, which outlines the key arguments for a lower limit.

https://www.thestar.co.uk/news/fresh-calls-for-lowering-drink-drive-limit-453944

JNugent <jnugent@mail.com> wrote:
> On 18/12/2023 08:46 am, Simon Mason wrote:

> [Nothing of any relevance to ukrc and in particular, nothing about
> chav-bikes and the chavs who ride them.]

The 22nd of February gets ever closer…:-)

--
Spike

Drink-drive limits should be cut by more than a third and reduced to zero for professional, young and novice drivers, according to a government-funded study.

There has been ‘virtually no progress’ in reducing drink-driving deaths in the UK over the last decade, with 240 people being killed each year where a driver was over the limit.

The Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS) report said “a lower limit would have a totemic impact and long-term benefit. The dangers of driving with even low levels of drink and drugs make a lower limit more relevant”.

Drivers are limited to 80mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood in England and Wales, a rule that has remained the same since 1967.

No other country in Europe has a limit above 50mg/100ml – the Scottish government reduced its limit to 50mg/100ml in 2014.

The Northern Ireland Assembly passed legislation to follow Scotland’s reduction in 2018, but this has not yet come into force.

PACTS executive director David Davies said: “A lower limit is not a magic bullet but government polices to reduce drink driving will lack credibility as long as they avoid this change.”

According to PACTS, lower limits have been shown to reduce fatal crashes in a number of countries including Australia, Brazil, France, Japan, Serbia, Sweden, Switzerland and the US.

Despite drink driving being the cause of 13% of road deaths in the UK, levels of police enforcement have decreased by 63% since 2009.

Monday’s (January 25) publication paints a worrying picture about reoffenders too.

Since 2010, nearly one in five (17%) drink drive charges were committed by a repeat offender and eight motorists who were convicted of causing death when driving above the limit had a previous drink/drug offence on their record.

Mr Davies said: “The problem is not a simple one of law enforcement.. It requires a more comprehensive approach.

“The legal limit should be reduced in England and Wales, police should be given additional powers to test drivers, the High Risk Offender Scheme should be reformed, rehabilitation courses should be designed for those with mental health and alcohol problems, and the growing danger of combining drink and drugs driving needs to be addressed.”

RAC road safety spokesman Simon Williams said: “The plain fact is that there has been virtually no progress in reducing drink-driving deaths for nearly a decade, so something different clearly needs to be done.

“Given that England and Wales now have the dubious distinction of having the most lenient drink-drive limit in Europe, there is also a good case for the government to examine the merits of bringing it down.

“Seeing as the level of reoffending is so high, we believe this needs to be tackled as a matter of urgency. A year and a half ago the government said it was looking at the benefits so-called ‘alcolocks’ to reduce reoffending, so it is high time a clear plan was put together that sets out how this technology will be now introduced to reduce future deaths.”

https://www.rac.co.uk/drive/news/motoring-news/ministers-told-to-slash-drink-drive-limit-to-zero-or-risk-further-fatalitie/

On 18/12/2023 01:19 pm, Simon Mason wrote...

....nothing relevant to uk.rec.cycling.

And certainly nothing to do with chav-bikes and the chavs who ride them
(too often along FOOTways, of course).

Mind you, at least two more of his posts made today were intercepted by
news.individual.net's excellent anti-troll filters.

Four out of five of motorists think there should be stiffer penalties for drink-driving, with more than half strongly in favour.

When asked in a new poll what measures the Government should introduce if laws were made tougher, a lower or zero tolerance alcohol limit was supported by 43%.

More than a third (35%) agreed that fines should be calculated as a percentage of the driver’s income, according to the survey by AlcoSense Breathalysers.

Just under a third said that an ‘interlock’ should be fitted on the cars of all motorists convicted of drink-driving. This is a device that stops the car from starting if alcohol is detected on the driver’s breath.

Nearly 30% thought the frequency of breath testing by Police should be increased and that random testing should be brought in.

A similar number said they supported an even more draconian measure - immediate confiscation of a car if the driver is over the limit, with the car then sold to fund road safety campaigns and care for road accident victims.

Other steps included the compulsory carrying of a personal breathalyser in the car (24%), and a ‘name and shame’ public register on the internet of all drink drivers together with their photos (20%).

AlcoSense polled 2,000 drivers who drink alcohol at least once a week. They were asked to select up to three options from a list of potential measures to toughen up drink-driving laws.

“Latest figures show that 220 people were killed on the roads last year where the driver was over the limit, up 30% on the previous year,” said Hunter Abbott, MD of AlcoSense Breathalysers. “It seems the public now agree that more needs to be done to stamp out drink-driving.

“With Christmas approaching, drink-drive campaigns are not effective enough. Over half of motorists told us it makes no difference to their attitude to drinking and driving.

“A marketing campaign may help to shape opinions - but tougher legislation is required to really make a difference in behaviour.”

When asked about the drink-drive limit in England and Wales, two thirds of respondents were in favour of reducing it from the current level of 80mg of alcohol per 100mL of blood.

Half of those supported it being brought down to the Scottish limit of 50mg, with the other 50% saying even lower than that.

Nearly half (44%) said that, in addition to lowering the limit, there should be better Police enforcement of that new limit.

The number of motorists in England and Wales found to be over the drink-drive limit last Christmas, including those who refused the test, was 4,816 – a failure rate of nearly 8%.

https://www.fleetnews.co.uk/news/fleet-industry-news/2018/12/07/drink-driving-penalties-should-be-strengthened-says-poll