14 October 2015 – SMART policies for tackling drink driving, London

  • October 14, 2015

14 October 2015, 14:00-17:00

European Commission Representation, Europe House 32 Smith Sq. London, SW1P 3EU

ETSC and the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS) organised a national conference on drink driving in London. The debate had the objective of addressing policy and practice on education, enforcement, penalties, rehabilitation, alcohol interlocks and other measures to discourage and prevent drink driving.

A focus on the UK drink driving situation and the measures undertaken by the government were given by Elizabeth Shovelton from the Departement of Transport. The legislative change in 2015 removed the so-called Statutory Option (drivers asking for a specimen of blood of urine in replacement of the breath test) to make it easier to enforce drink driving. Also, new mobile Evidential breath testing instruments are in the process of being type approved in order to be used by police forces at roadside checks.

Tim Madgwick, from the UK National Police Chiefs Council showed the results of enforcement summer campaigns from last June and the initial findings  from Scotland where a real change behaviour towards drink driving has been observed since the BAC has been lowered to 0.5g/l (80 drink drivers/week caught on average compare to 106/week prior to change).

The second session saw the intervention of representatives from Sweden, Norway and Finland to share their experience in tackling drink driving through the setting up of rehabilitation courses, the use of alcohol interlocks for professional and recidivists drivers and raising awareness campaings.

The British Beer and Pub Association policy Director, Andy Tighe, spoke about the role of brewers in communicating the risks of drinking and driving through their involvement in several awareness raising campaigns, among which some recent THINK campaigns run by the Department for Transport.

Download the agenda here.

Presentations

Drink Driving in the EU, ETSC

Government measures to tackle drink driving in the UK, Department for Transport 

Police Enforcement of drink driving in the UK, National Police Chiefs Council

Good Practice from Sweden, Swedish Transport Agency

Good practice from Norway, Norwegian Public Roads Administration

Good practice from Finland, Finnish Traffic Safety Agency

The role of the industry in tackling drink driving, British Beer and Pub Association

The SMART project receives financial support from The Brewers of Europe.

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