Whilst it might seem amazing that over 60% of us don’t know the drink drive limits in the UK, just ask yourself what you think you can drink and still be legal?
From personal experience, I could only guess and even then the accuracy of my best guess can change depending on your constitution and maybe even if you’ve eaten recently and I would suggest that’s why no one really knows what they can safely drink and still be safe and legal, after all what on earth does 80 mg of alcohol per 100 ml of blood mean to any of us.
Other measures are in terms of breath alcohol – 35 µg (microgrammes) per 100 ml (which is now the usual official measure in the UK), or alcohol in the urine – 107 mg per 100 ml.
Recent research by insurance giant AXA, involved asking 800 drivers to answer questions about the drink drive laws and only 39% were able to state the correct legal limit which is equivalent to one pint of normal strength beer, however 28% thought it was higher whilst 13% thought the limit equated to a pint and a half of beer. A further 13% thought after supping two pints, they were still able to drive legally and an optimistic 2% thought the limit was higher than two pints of beer.
The governments own website states that each persons tolerance depends on a range of factors, such as a persons weight, gender, age, metabolism, current stress levels and whether they have eaten recently or not and because of this, goes on to say “the only safe option is not to drink alcohol if you plan to drive, and never offer an alcoholic drink to someone else who is intending to drive”.
Researching this, I found as absolute minefield of conflicting advice, from some significant (and well respected bodies) ranging from a half a pint maximum, up to 2 pints being the norm for most people and clearly, they both cant be right.
I am no prude, but fact is that on this issue, it seems that no one size fits everyone and the only way to be safe is not to drink at all, if you anticipate driving in the near future, as behaving in what you believe to be a legal way, could actually be outside of the law and cost you your licence and all the horrible things that go with that.
Don’t forget, the mandatory sentence for drink driving in the U.K. is a 12 months ban and if the circumstances are felt to be more serious, that could end up as a 3 year ban and even imprisonment. A second offence in 10 years could also get you a 3 year ban.
The Breathalyzer was introduced in the U.K. as far back as 1967, so its now over 40 years old, but it wasn’t the first way of detecting alcohol on your breath, that was the wonderfully named “Drunkometer” which was invented in the United States way back in 1938, with the Breathalyzer following some years later in 1954.
In the first years of the UK Breathalyzer tests, around 10,000 people a year were convicted, rising pretty quickly to around 58,000 a year by 1974. Things kind of settled down a bit in terms of numbers, but there was a massive blip in 1987-1990 when over 100,000 drivers were convicted each year. Even in the new millennium, we regularly prosecute over 80,000 drivers each year.
Ironically, the way different countries enforce these laws can differ hugely and whilst drink driving carries a mandatory 12 months ban here in the UK, in the USA for example, whilst they have the same limits as us, not one of the 51 states I have detail on, bans a driver for more than 180 days and in fact many just give 90 days with some as low as a 7 day suspension and incredibly, 9 states don’t impose any ban at all, so it seems the country that invented the Breathalyzer, actually takes it less seriously than the rest of us.
So anyway, you now know what they say is the legal limit and if you’re like me, frankly, I am none the wiser and I still don’t know what my metabolism or stress level would allow me to drink, so best practice is not to do it at all and whilst that’s possible, I still worry that a couple of glasses of wine over dinner at home are going to leave me breaking the law during the 7.30am commute the next day
