Drink driving statistics in Europe

In Europe there are currently several drink driving laws beeing debated. One of them wants to limit the maximum blood alcohol level in human blood to 50mg, but also to impose the application of current drink driving European laws.

Current drink driving laws in some countries already have a blood alcohol limit of 0.5 mg/ml, while others have a 0.8 mg/ml alcohol in blood limit. By far the harshest laws are in Sweden, which imposes an alcohol level of 0.2 mg in every ml of blood.

Current drink driving statistics in Europe have put into focus the UK, because it lacks in imposing effective drink driving laws which should reduce alcohol consumption related deaths on the road. Data is still being gathered and analyzed from current drink driving statistics over a 6 month period and a more recent drink driving statistic is to be released soon.

Drink driving related accidents seem to be on the increase in the UK (from 450 in ’98, to 550 in ’05 and ‘06).  Yet, statistics say that while the number of deaths is rising the number of drivers failing police breath tests is on a downwards slope.

Laws imposed this year have had some success in the UK, deaths in drink drive accidents fell nine percents, as well as the injury count (from 2300 to around 2000). The law maker should take a stronger position against “drink driving”, and should further reduce the alcohol blood limit. There is proof that this will cut back on drink driving deaths and injuries even more.

With this in mind, it is likely that we shall see a major reduction in the drink drive limit and drink driving statistics in Europe in the years to come, with the recent random breathalyzers roadside tests being put into action recently.