Understanding The Drink Drive Limit And How To Stay Under It

According to some statistical evidence, deaths from accidents caused by driving over the legal drink drive limit are down compared to twenty years ago, but there are still too many deaths and serious injuries involving people who have been driving over the official limit. An average three thousand people are either killed or seriously injured each year due to people having been driving while over the drink drive limit.

Police Crack Down

The police are currently trying to crack down on the extent to which people are drinking and driving in the UK. They are using roadside checkpoints in an attempt to catch those who have been drinking before taking to the roads. Once a vehicle stops for the checkpoint the police have the right to ask for a breath test. You do have the right to say no if there is no reason for stopping you other than the fact of the random checkpoint. Few people want to be branded as troublemakers in the eyes of the law so the vast majority will usually comply and take the test.

The police do in excess of 500,000 breath tests every year. Of these, about one hundred thousand people fail their breath test, which means that there are a lot of drivers on the road who are over the legal limit for driving after consuming alcohol. And this of course does not include all those who were not tested.

If you are pulled over on suspicion of drink driving and refuse to give a breath test or any other alcohol test you will be arrested for driving over the drink drive limit. All laws that affect a driver under the influence will affect you even if you had nothing to drink. Being pulled over on suspicion of being under the influence is different to being randomly stopped at a checkpoint, so you do not have the right to refuse the test.

Understanding The Drink Drive Limit

You can be charged with drink driving if your blood alcohol is 80 mg per 100 ml of blood, your breath alcohol is 35 microgrammes per 100 ml or the alcohol in your urine is 107mg per 100ml.

Two regular pints of beer can put a normal sized man over the limit. However there is no hard and fast rule about it, so you should not use that as a gauge as to how much you drink. There are many more factors involved that can also have an effect, such as drinking on an empty stomach, your metabolism, stress, age, weight and sex are some of the other things that factor into how much you can drink.

The Effects Of Drinking And Driving

Driving while under the influence of alcohol has a profound effect on how you drive.

Your reaction time will be slowed down.
You will not be able to see objects in the distance.
Your Night vision is reduced by 25%
You could suffer from blurred or double vision.
You may experience loss of peripheral vision.
Alcohol causes over confidence which makes drivers take greater risks.

If you know you are going out drinking take along a designated driver who will avoid alcohol for the night and why not buy the driver soft drinks all night for him for being a good sport.

By: K D Garrow

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Find out more about the legal drink drive limit on the author's Young Drivers Car Insurancewebsite, which offers a range of information including how to reduce the cost of insurance, or visit his other site on car insurance for a day.