'A lower drink-drive limit would save lives'

Councillor Chris Gloster when he was police inspector

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A COUNCILLOR who spent 30 years policing the roads is calling for the Government to reduce the drink-drive limit.

Former officer Chris Gloster, who is a councillor for Shaw, will propose a motion to Oldham Council at tomorrow's meeting to urge the Government to reduce the limit to bring it in line with Scotland and many European countries.

Councillor Gloster, who spent 25 years of his career as a roads policing officer, saw first-hand the "misery" that drink-driving can bring and believes a lower limit will make people think twice about an extra drink.

The current limit in the majority of the UK is 80mg per 100ml of blood, the highest in Europe along with Malta, while Scotland recently reduced its drink-drive limit to 50mg per 100ml of blood, mirroring the limit in many European countries, and Northern Ireland is currently considering doing the same.

In 2014, on average five people a day were killed and 62 seriously injured on Britain's roads, with statistics showing that nearly one in six collisions resulting in a fatality involved a drink-driver.

New statistics show older motorists are drink-driving in record numbers with the number aged 65 and above involved in smashes rising from 1,295 in 2005 to 1,435 by 2015, while those involving drivers under 19 fell from 6,744 to 1,436.

Councillor Gloster said: "I spent 30 years in the police service, 25 of which were spent as a roads policing officer at different levels.

"My final role was a senior officer investigating road collisions where tragically there had been deaths or serious injuries.

"The message should be none for the road and the limit should be reduced to be in line with the majority of Europe at least."

He added: "A lower limit will make people think twice about that extra drink.

"Everyone has different tolerance levels to alcohol and the current level can make someone unfit to drive, even though they are not over the legal limit of 80mg of alcohol in their blood.

"I am confident that a lower limit will save lives."

The motion is backed by fellow Shaw councillor Rod Blyth.

He said: "I am grateful to Chris for bringing this important issue to the attention of the Full Council.

"The current position is illogical in law, and must be bewildering to the motorist, when a driver under the legal limit in England can be immediately prosecuted once they cross the Scottish border.

"We need consistency in our treatment of drivers wherever they consume alcohol within the UK. Scotland has reduced the limit, Northern Ireland is considering following suit, so it seems sensible for everyone to adopt the lower limit."

He added: "There are clearly road-safety grounds for having a lower limit in place in any case.

"It is frightening that in 1966, there were 7,985 fatalities on Britain's roads, yet by 1980, this figure had halved and by 2014 halved again.

"Although modern cars contain many safety features, much of the reduction is due to the introduction of the breathalyser in 1967, to government road safety campaigns around drink-driving and to changing public attitudes about its acceptability."

Councillor Blyth added: "The Oldham Liberal Democrats now feel we need to take the drink-drive limit lower to further reduce road deaths; every one of which is an individual tragedy."