The cost of drink driving
Drink driving is an issue always guaranteed to make the news, and over the last few weeks it’s featured in the headlines even more frequently than normal.
This time it’s the issue of Alcohol Ignition Locks that have caused the reporters to grab their pencils and start scribbling their stories. Currently on trial in Bristol and Birmingham, ‘alcolocks’ as they’ve become known, are breath-testing devices fitted to the car’s ignition, disabling the engine if they sense that the driver’s been drinking alcohol.
Several companies linked to the motor industry have already called for alcolocks to be made compulsory for convicted drink drivers, and now online car insurance company, Duck2Water (www.duck2watercarinsurance.co.uk), specialists in providing cheap car insurance, have added their weight to the campaign too.
Disturbed by the fact that 20 per cent of motorists banned because of drink driving are re-offenders, Duck2Water are calling on the Government to make alcolocks, if trials prove successful, compulsory to all drink drivers once they complete their ban and return to the road.
Under the current Road Safety Bill, courts in the future could order those drivers banned for more than a year to fit one of the devices at their own cost if they wish to make a return to the road before their ban is completed.
But Duck2Water want the Government to go further and make alcolocks obligatory for anyone who finds themselves convicted of a drink driving offence. The motor insurance firm’s spokeswoman, Rebecca Pearson, said, “Alcolocks should be used as a deterrent to stop the massive rate of re-offending, and not simply as a quick route back to the road for convicted criminals.
“If these trials that are currently underway prove that these devices work, then their potential is surely massive. Let’s harness that potential and make use of every possible method to prevent anymore pointless loss of live through someone else’s drink driving habits.”
23 per cent of people recently questioned admitted to driving after drinking more than the legal limit. Considering that the survey asked a broad section of society, this means that over seven million Britons could be taking the wheel when in a totally unfit condition to do so. Even more frightening is the revelation that nearly one in twenty (four per cent) admit they have driven after consuming more than 10 units of alcohol. This equates to over five pints of beer, a quantity that would leave some unable to walk, never mind drive.
Such alarming statistics can only reinforce the need for the Government to further their attempts to cut out drink driving, and, as Duck2Water claim, the alcolock could be one of the ways to do it.