Time to drop the legal BAC limit to .02 in wake of Oatlands crash
Why do we have zero tolerance on all drugs except alcohol, when the drug that is alcohol kills and maims many times more Australians than knives and guns combined, Harold Scruby asks.
Opinion
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In Norway, the death toll per hundred thousand population is around two, in a country where it is dark and icy for half the year.
In Australia, it’s around five.
In Norway, the BAC (blood alcohol concentration) limit is 0.02 per cent. Drive with a BAC of 0.02 per cent or higher, there are strictly enforced penalties equal to a month’s salary and loss of licence for a year.
Drive with a BAC of 0.15 per cent or higher, there are massive fines, loss of licence ranging from two years to life, and mandatory jail time ranging from 21 days to a year.
On January 7 this year, a Ferrari driver was booked when he recorded a BAC of .107.
A few hours later, he crashed the same vehicle into a shop in Market Street in the CBD. It was reported that there was huge explosion.
There were hundreds of people around. It was a miracle that no-one was killed.
On Saturday, police allege a driver with a BAC of 0.150 mounted a footpath and struck seven children, killing four and seriously injuring two. It was a heartbreaking incident, not an accident, just waiting to happen.
So were these similar events due to good and bad luck … or bad management: Our drink-drive culture of Road Safety with fingers crossed?
If you want to clear a room of politicians, say the words “road safety”.
They see no votes in it and vote against any who attempt to introduce tougher laws or increase penalties. Politicians were all over the media during the bushfires. Yet deaths from bushfires annually would not equate to 5 per cent of our annual road toll, which, apart from the pain, grief and suffering, costs us over $30 billion per annum.
Instead, they have embraced probably the most nebulous, meaningless campaign ever conceived in Australia, “Towards Zero”.
Which sounds great in theory, except that there is no commitment as to the “when”.
It’s like floating a public company whose objective is “Towards Profit”.
And it allows those responsible to be “unaccountable” for our road trauma because “tomorrow never comes”.
According to the National Road Safety Strategy 2011 to 2020, (which all agree has been a monumental failure), alcohol was responsible for 30 per cent of deaths on our roads. Illicit drugs accounted for 7 per cent.
Anecdotal reports from police suggest that during random drug testing, as many as one in ten drivers is inebriated.
But that creates an interesting point.
Why do we have zero tolerance on all drugs except alcohol, when the drug that is alcohol kills and maims many times more Australians than knives and guns combined?
Today on our roads, Learners and P-platers must only take the wheel if their BAC is 0.00 per cent. And bus, truck and taxi drivers have a maximum BAC of 0.02 per cent.
It’s the driver, not so much the vehicle, which causes these disasters.
Great changes in road safety often occur after tragedies.
In 2006, a P-plate driver crashed his car killing four of his young passengers. The father of one of the boys, Rob Wells, wanted his son’s death to have some meaning.
He joined with us and we campaigned and got some of the toughest P-plate laws in Australia, including 0.00 per cent BAC. Over time, they have saved scores of lives and limbs.
In 2003, Sophie Delezio was severely injured when a car ploughed into her kindergarten. In May 2006, she was hit on a pedestrian crossing causing more severe injuries. She nearly died.
Her father, Ron Delezio, joined with us and campaigned for much tougher laws and enforcement in school zones.
Again, the government introduced much tougher regulations and penalties and NSW school zones have seen a significant reduction in road trauma since then.
Mandatory vehicle confiscation as is done in South Australia is essential.
Yet at the same time, magistrates across the country are notoriously Sorbent-soft on drink drive offences. They desperately need re-educating.
Politicians will argue that you can’t stop people getting drunk and then driving.
We agree.
But where we differ is that we believe we can minimise the behaviour by copying Norway’s BAC laws and penalties.
As in Norway, few people even risk one drink, knowing the consequences. The culture is quite the opposite here.
The lives of these four young children must not be in vain. Now is the time to emulate Norway, grab the moment and reduce the maximum BAC to .02 per cent … across the nation.
Gough Whitlam once famously quipped: “Politicians are like rowers … they face one way and go the other.”
With the help of the media, this horrific disaster can get them facing in the right direction.
We beg politicians across Australia to call a national symposium, to honour these young children and all those killed and injured by inebriated drivers.
We need to be a lot more Nordic.
Harold Scruby is Chairman and CEO of the Pedestrian Council of Australia