Commenting on the North Review of the Drink and Drug Driving Laws, Edmund King, AA President, said: “The Automobile Association has long been highlighting the hidden problems of drugs and driving and are delighted that these issues are being addressed.  We are pleased that Sir Peter has followed our verbal and written recommendations on many of these issues and made use of our AA/Populus panel results to ascertain the views of the motoring public.

“Our members want action on drug driving and also support a reduction in the drink drive limit together with a 12 month ban.

“Drink driving accounts for some 430 deaths per year and if better records were kept we estimate that an extra 215 deaths may be due to drug driving or a combination of drugs and alcohol. Hence a quarter of all road deaths are caused by drink or drug driving so it is essential that further action is taken.

”The AA believes that more focus needs to be given to the problems of drug driving.  We are pleased that Sir Peter has made positive recommendations on screening devices, a clarification of the law and a call for coroners to test for the presence of drugs in road fatalities.  We would like to thank Sir Peter and his team for their work on these important subjects.”

The following recommendations were proposed by the AA and are included in the North report recommendations.

Drink Driving
Lowering of drink drive limit to 50mg/100ml
Review 20mg limit for new drivers after 5 years
Maintain a 12 month ban at 50mg
Target cars of high risk offenders
Deployment of portable evidential breath testing equipment
Higher policing priority
79% AA members support random breath tests
 
Drug Driving
Coroners should test for drugs in all fatalities
Volunatray roadside saliva tests
Greater use of Field Impairment tests (FIT) and training
Drug driving to be made an “offence brought to justice”
Speed up the process with use of nurses rather than forensic physicians
Look to type approval of police station drug screening kits
Look to a specific offence of driving with certain controlled drugs at levels deemed impairing
On legal drugs better NHS training and clearer labelling
 
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