Intolerance of drink-driving has yet to permeate Maltese culture, Health Minister Joe Cassar said yesterday.
People need to learn to refuse to get into a car if the driver has been drinking
Speaking at the launch of the government’s annual drink awareness campaign in the run-up to the Christmas season, Dr Cassar compared the effectiveness of a number of health-related initiatives.
“Although people seem to have understood the importance of healthy eating and even not smoking cigarettes, there’s still a lot to do when it comes to drink-driving.”
Dr Cassar, who is a medical doctor by profession, urged people to stop trying to calculate how many drinks they could have before they were over the legal drinking limit and adopt a simple “if you’re driving, don’t drink” approach.
“It’s useless trying to calculate whether you’re under the limit after one drink or two, because the rate at which your body metabolises alcohol can vary from one day to the next,” he warned.
Medication, food intake and even drinking grapefruit juice could affect a person’s metabolism. It was therefore pointless trying to work out how many drinks one could have before reaching the limit of 0.08 grams per decilitre of blood allowed by Maltese law.
Malta’s limit, which is the same as the UK’s, is among Europe’s highest. In most other EU states, the limit is set at 0.05 grams per decilitre, while countries such as the Czech Republic, Romania and Slovakia have adopted a zero tolerance approach.
Sedqa has called on the government to reduce it to 0.05 grams per decilitre, in line with most other wine-producing nations. They would also like to see a zero tolerance approach for newly-qualified drivers.
The campaign launched yesterday will comprise a series of television, radio and print advertisements. As in previous years, the police force will be stopping any drivers they suspect may be over the limit and subjecting them to breathalyser tests.
Last year, the police stopped 400 cars on Christmas Eve and a further 1,006 on New Year’s Eve. Of these, 35 were subjected to breathalyser tests, with 25 emerging positive and being prosecuted.
The police will be adopting a zero tolerance approach, police superintendent Martin Bayliss said.
“Anyone caught driving over the legal limit will be prosecuted. Last year police were out on the streets from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. and we will be similarly vigilant this year.”
First-time offenders caught over the legal drink-driving limit are liable to a €1,200 fine, three months imprisonment and a suspension of their driving licence. Repeat offenders face double the fine and prison sentence and can have their driving licence withdrawn.
According to legislative amendments introduced last year, any driver who refuses to undergo a breathalyser test will be presumed guilty and prosecuted.
Crackdowns on drink-driving over the festive season would appear to have yielded positive results, with no holiday season deaths caused by reckless driving over the past few years.
But despite the positive results, Dr Cassar cautioned that road accident deaths were going up and that alcohol abuse, especially among youths, was also on the rise.
“We need to raise awareness one further notch and move this campaign from one being linked to the Christmas period to a more year-round one,” he said.
A Transport Malta official insisted that successfully stamping out drink-driving required a measure of discipline and self-policing among people.
“There’s still plenty of scope for the use of car pooling or designated drivers to increase and people need to learn to refuse to get into a car if the driver has been drinking,” he said.