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Drink driving continues to be one of Victoria’s deadliest social problems, with approximately a quarter of all fatal crashes involving a driver or rider with an illegal Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC).

While most will agree that driving with a BAC just slightly over the limit is dangerous, some continue to take the risk, in turn placing themselves, their passengers, and others sharing the road, in danger. The TAC’s drink driving campaigns are directed at low-level alcohol influenced drivers. TAC’s aim is to reduce the number of road deaths and serious injuries caused by drivers with BAC levels at, or just over, the legal limit.

Most important, these campaigns target low levels of intoxication, before drinkers graduate to higher risk levels of alcohol consumption.

What is BAC?

Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC) is a measurement of the amount of alcohol in the body. BAC is measured in grams of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood.

The legal blood alcohol concentration (BAC) limit is 0.05. This means that a driver’s body must contain less than 50 milligrams of alcohol per 100 milliliters of blood.

A driver’s BAC is measured by a simple breath test procedure.

Most people find it difficult to gauge their own blood alcohol level, as there are so many factors to consider:

• The amount of alcohol consumed
• The period of time over which alcohol is consumed
• Your body mass
• Whether you have eaten
• Your fitness level
• The health of your liver

Because every person’s metabolism is different, some people need to drink less than the standard hourly recommendation to maintain a BAC level below the legal limit.

How does alcohol affect driving performance?

Driving is a very complex task, which requires complex decision-making and total concentration. Alcohol affects a driver’s ability to be totally in control of his or her actions at:

• 0.02 to 0.05 BAC – the ability to see or locate moving lights correctly is diminished, as is the ability to judge distances. The tendency to take risks is increased, and the ability to respond to several stimuli is decreased.
• 0.05 to 0.08 BAC – the ability to judge distances is reduced, sensitivity to red lights is impaired, reactions are slower, and concentration span is shorter. At 0.08 BAC, drivers are five times more likely to have an accident than before they started drinking.
• 0.08 to 0.12 BAC – euphoria sets in, overestimation of one’s abilities leads to reckless driving, peripheral vision is impaired (resulting in accidents due to hitting vehicles in passing), and perception of obstacles is impaired. Drivers are up to 10 times more likely to have an accident.

What is the current law with relation to drink driving?

• By law, probationary drivers (P-platers) must maintain a zero BAC level (their BAC must equal zero). New alcohol laws affecting P-platers are expected to be introduced in January 2007.   
• Drivers of heavy trucks, buses, trains and trams must maintain a zero BAC level while on the road throughout most of Australia.
• Motorcyclists, in their first year of riding, must also maintain a zero BAC while on the road.

Penalties for drink driving offences include disqualification from driving for a specified period, fines, and imprisonment.

In Victoria, a BAC reading of 0.15 or higher results in suspension of the driver’s licence on the spot, until the case is heard in court.

Since 13 May 2002, Victorian courts can order anyone committing a repeat drink driver offence (or driving with a BAC reading of more than 0.15) to have an alcohol interlock device fitted to their car, motorbike or truck ignition.

Recent studies indicate that the message about drinking and driving is still not getting through to the public. Increased police RBT’s and booze bust campaigns are continuing to catch an alarming number of people taking such risks.

See figure A. Below:

28% of all drivers and motorcyclists killed on Victoria’s roads over the last year were 0.05 g/100ml or over. The majority of drivers are heavily intoxicated, registering more than three times over the legal limit.

You can see that in the span of over twenty years, the numbers of fatalities resulting from drinking and driving have not dropped significantly.

In 2008, Victoria Police breath tested 1.42 million drivers and riders from Booze Bus operations. Around 5,700 drivers and riders were caught with an illegal blood alcohol concentration (BAC) over this period.

These figures are alarming, more so, they are only indicative of one state.

The effects of drink driving are devastating for everyone concerned. The statistics above do not reflect the indirect victims of drink driving – the families and loved ones of these victims.

•    For example, in Victoria, over 28% of people killed in road fatalities die as a direct result of drinking and driving.  If 50 people drink and drive then cause an accident, an average of 350 additional lives are indirectly affected.  This includes victims who are injured in the wake of the accident, family members and friends of the victims, the community, and the treating emergency workers at the scene of the accident.

Consider the often forgotten victims, the ones who survive forced to live with devastating after-effects and trauma for the remainder of their lives. These victims, who may be permanently disabled, put an unbearable burden onto their families and loved ones, not to mention, the cost of ongoing medical treatment and loss of income. Quite simply, all of these devastating scenarios and statistics can easily be avoided.

Whilst drink driving is at the forefront of the crisis, other factors, such as alcohol-related violence and work-place safety need to be addressed. The media has been flushed with continuous stories of alcohol-fuelled violence, both in the streets and domestically.  In the work place, it is common for accidents to occur – vehicular and non-vehicular. This is a taboo subject and grey area to address. Many employers feel it is an invasion of privacy to breathalyse their workers, or imply that an incident or accident is a direct result of drinking.  How many of these unfortunate happenings can be avoided if everyone had access to means of a morning breath test prior to beginning the workday? You would have to reason that most of these work-related accidents would be abolished.

What can we do to stop this epidemic?

There is no simple solution to put an end to all incidents of drink driving, but there is an amazingly easy and accessible solution to help people behave more responsibly.  Drinking Mate is a company that retails and wholesales quality and reliable alcohol breathalyzers that are accurate and affordable.  Most people do not realize that you can now own your own personal testing device, nor do they think they can afford one.  Drinking Mate is a company passionate about raising awareness of the effects of drink driving and proving how easy it is to ensure that people do not add to these unfortunate statistics.

Based on their own research, Drinking Mate has found that the public who wish to drink, but be able to drive home, were, generally, disillusioned with the lack of public testing devices. They also found that people were frustrated because they believed the only way to tell if they were over the limit, was to be caught and tested by the Police.

Additional studies have shown that people fool themselves into believing they are sober enough to drive after a sufficient amount of sleep. Two recent newspaper articles proved this theory wrong.  In the Sun Herald, two of out of three people tested, all having consumed a meal and ceased drinking at 2:30am, still blew above the legal limit when tested at 9am the following morning.

The team at Drinking Mate would like to make their vision and purpose public. They feel that a story highlighting drink driving and its devastating effects, is a message that needs to be heard, repeatedly, until this message sinks in. The public needs to be aware that there are affordable and accurate devices, which Drinking Mate can supply, to ensure responsible drinking.

We want to be a part of the solution, and any publicity raising awareness and touting our cause will help to make this solution an attainable reality, and in turn, increase public safety.

For more information, please contact, Ahmed Hassan, Company Director: 0415-773-743

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