New drink driving laws are bad news for one-pint-only drinkers

Yahoo

11 hours ago

One pint, or just one glass of wine, could put you over the new drink driving limit coming to England and Wales. The government has announced that it is examining tougher drink-driving regulations.
The proposed changes would see the drink-drive threshold reduced from 35 micrograms of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath to 22 micrograms, bringing it in line with Scotland's limits.
According to the Scottish Government's website, even one pint could put you over the limit. The Scottish Government website states that: "Scotland has a zero tolerance approach to drink driving... You cannot safely drink any alcohol when driving... One drink can put you over the limit."
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In Scotland, there is no safe number of pints to drink before driving. The legal alcohol limit for driving in Scotland is 50 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood, or 22 micrograms of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath.
This means that an average man would be limited to just under a pint of beer or a large glass of wine, and women to half a pint of beer or a small glass of wine.
Alcohol remains in your system for quite some time after consumption, and so you may still be over the limit the morning after a party.
For example, if you have four pints of beer and stop drinking at 9pm, you're not legally sober enough to drive until 7.24am.
However, the effect of alcohol varies greatly between individuals due to factors like weight, age, metabolism, and whether you've eaten, making it impossible to determine a specific number of drinks that would be safe. The safest approach, according to the Scottish Government, is to avoid alcohol completely if you plan to drive.
This is because everybody processes alcohol in a different way. For example, two people who drink the same pint of beer can show different alcohol levels in the body.
Why does alcohol impact people differently?
The limit on how much a person can drink if driving cannot simply be changed into drinks or units.
The limits are based on how much alcohol is flowing through your body at the time of measurement - whether this be through your breath, blood or urine.
The same drink can create different levels of alcohol for different people.
According to the government, this depends on:
your weight, age, sex and metabolism (the rate your body uses energy)
the type of alcohol you drink
what you've eaten
medication
your stress levels
Why is the limit not zero?
Officials have stopped short at making the drink drive limit zero as it would be 'unfair' as there is more than one reason as to why drivers could have alcohol in their system other than from drinking.
Anyone can consume alcohol without knowing it. Some foods, mouthwash and medications can often contain alcohol.
What is the penalty for drink-driving?
If anyone is convicted of drink driving, you can be handed a minimum driving ban of 12 months, go to prison for six months or be fined up to £5,000.