Gov’t considers reducing threshold for specified alcohol limit while driving
Published:Friday | May 17, 2024 | 12:12 AM
The Jamaican Government is considering a reduction in the legally allowed alcohol level in persons operating motor vehicles, following several deadly crashes that occurred over the last week.
Prime Minister Andrew Holness, chairman of the National Road Safety Council (NRSC), said the change in the threshold for the prescribed alcohol limit while driving is necessary to help craft a driving ‘safety’ culture, which he said is lacking in the country and specifically among drivers of public passenger vehicles and heavy-duty vehicles.
He said that with the construction of several hundred miles of new road and driving surfaces, it has emerged that some people are not trained or have the driving culture to operate vehicles on these new surfaces.
Under the new Road Traffic Act, persons with more than 35 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millimetres of breath and a blood alcohol concentration of 80 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millimetres of blood will be judged to be over the legally prescribed limit.
Holness, who was speaking at a meeting of the NRSC on Thursday, said that the threshold may be too high, with what he said is the increase in the number of people driving under the influence of alcohol.
Under the act, a person who refuses to consent to the taking of air on blood specimen or refuses to give a specimen, may, if his actions support evidence that he is intoxicated or if he refuses without reasonable grounds, be subject to sanctions. These sanctions include a fine or imprisonment.
“We discussed also driving under the influence of alcohol and the need for increasing our breathalyser testing. On that matter, the conversation surrounded whether or not there needs to be a review of the threshold of alcohol in one’s system to be determined as driving under the influence or driving while drunk.
“That is something that we have decided to take a second look at. Other countries are moving towards reducing the threshold, and our threshold is at international standards but at the higher end, and I think we should go down to a lower end,” said Holness.
He said a reduction would ensure that more people are captured who drive drunk but are not being prosecuted.
He said while the message from the country-wide public education is not to drink and drive, legislation indicates otherwise.
“The laws would suggest that there is a threshold for which you can drink and drive, and that is inconsistent, and I think we should take a look at that … ,” Holness said.
In the same breath, he urged drivers to “slow down and drive within the limits”.
The caution follows the deaths of two students of Titchfield High School in Port Antonio, Portland, on Tuesday.
At least five others were rushed to hospital after a taxi transporting students slammed into a parked truck near Blueberry Hill in Buff Bay.