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NI changes law for young drivers

Posted: Thu Jan 21, 2016 9:28 am
by akirk
http://www.northdevonjournal.co.uk/8203 ... story.html

A new law has been passed in Northern Ireland to help keep young drivers safe on the country's roads, prompting questions about whether the same could work in England.

The Road Traffic (Amendment) Bill, which will come into force in 2018, includes tougher drink-drive limits, a minimum six-month learning period, night-time restrictions on younger drivers carrying passengers, and will enable learners to drive on the motorway.

The bill will introduce two new lower drink-driving limits – 50mg/100ml for all drivers (as is the case now in Scotland) and 20mg/100ml for novice and professional drivers. The current limit in England, Wales and Northern Ireland is 80mg/100ml.


Alasdair

Re: NI changes law for young drivers

Posted: Thu Jan 21, 2016 9:46 am
by IcedKiwi
Drivers aged between 17 and 25 account for about one in five road deaths (25%)

Hopefully if it's successful they'll be able to decrease that to at least 20% :roll:

Re: NI changes law for young drivers

Posted: Thu Jan 21, 2016 9:49 am
by martine
IcedKiwi wrote:
Drivers aged between 17 and 25 account for about one in five road deaths (25%)

Hopefully if it's successful they'll be able to decrease that to at least 20% :roll:

Not sure I get your comment...but it sounds like you're not in favour of the changes in NI?

If not, what would you do - being practical and realistic?

Re: NI changes law for young drivers

Posted: Thu Jan 21, 2016 10:12 am
by IcedKiwi
Sorry it was merely a jibe at the authors grasp of percentages.

I'm actually in favour of the changes. I do question the 20mg/100ml limit - what's that half a shandy? I guess their real aim was to make it zero but that would be perceived as too harsh despite there being very little difference between that and 20mg/100ml and would probably result in them having no drinks anyway (mainly based on my assumptions rather than any actual knowledge of drink to alcohol quantity).

Re: NI changes law for young drivers

Posted: Thu Jan 21, 2016 1:19 pm
by martine
IcedKiwi wrote:Sorry it was merely a jibe at the authors grasp of percentages.

I'm actually in favour of the changes. I do question the 20mg/100ml limit - what's that half a shandy? I guess their real aim was to make it zero but that would be perceived as too harsh despite there being very little difference between that and 20mg/100ml and would probably result in them having no drinks anyway (mainly based on my assumptions rather than any actual knowledge of drink to alcohol quantity).

Ha...I missed the error in their calculation...so much for my observation.

Yes 20mg is very low but not zero...there is a problem with so-called zero tolerance as a trace of alcohol can remain in your body for a long, long time after drinking. I believe some drugs, some mouth wash and a tiramisu would trigger a reading as well.

There is strong evidence any form of Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL) is beneficial but the current government is very hands-off and reluctant to introduce any form of new legislation.

Re: NI changes law for young drivers

Posted: Thu Jan 21, 2016 1:32 pm
by sussex2
My experience is that young drivers, those under 20 or 21, drink and drive much less often than older generations; those who think the mythical two pint rule is somehow written in stone. Those that on a regular basis play russian roulette.
The problem these young drivers have is that they are young and we have all been that once (or twice) :)
Whilst Northern Ireland can be seen to be in the stone age where social legislation is concerned, here it is not.

Re: NI changes law for young drivers

Posted: Thu Jan 21, 2016 2:14 pm
by Astraist
The drink-drive limit laws in Israel by the way are not unlike those, expect that novice (and professional) drivers are limited to half of that (10mg/100ml) and that legislation has been hailed by advanced driving coaches.

To me, it's as close as possible to a perfect "zero tolerance" policy, which is impractical because small percents of alcohol may occur or endure in all sort of commodities, so it will be hard to enforce this.

But than again, Israel is not that big on drinking culture. There tends to be a correlation between drinking culture and drinking-driving, just like at Russia and the PLA...