A stiffer penalty should be imposed on motorists who are arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol. A heavy fined should be meted out on the offenders, in addition to an automatic 12 month driving ban and if it involved in a fatal accident , a jail term of between three and ten years.
Many developing countries have been enforcing such law and have successfully reduced the number of accidents involving drink-driving offences.
The offender’s car insurance premium would double or even treble for many years and hiring a car would be difficult for up to 10 years. Once the offenders were convicted of their offence, the Road Transport Department should revoke their driving licence with immediate effect.
The offenders should also take a medical test to prove that they were no longer heavy drinkers and to go for fresh driving test. A compulsory policy of breath testing for all drivers involved in any accidents must also be introduced. This is to confirm the alcohol affects on the driver ability to judge the distance and speed correctly.
The safety or legal limit here is 80milligrams of alcohol per 100ml of blood, 35 micrograms of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath and 107 milligrams of alcohol per 100ml of urine. Actually, it is impossible to calculate the legal limit. It takes about one hour for each unit of alcohol to leave our body.
This means if we have eight pints of ordinary strength beer and stopped drinking at midnight, all the alcohol would not be dispelled from the body ( and we would not be safe to drive ) until about 4pm the following day.
There is no way to speed up the process up - cold showers, coffee and sleep – do not make any difference at all – time is the only factor. Drink driving drivers have caused a lot of nuisance and inconveniences to other road users, especially during weekends when they have to avoid being run over or knocked down by these drivers.
They just simply overtake or stop their vehicles without warning and drive dangerously at a very high speed. For those familiar with the area where the common road block is, they try to use alternative route to prevent being arrested.
Consumers are advised that if they plan to drink they should leave their car at home or leave their car and go home by taxi and collect the car the following day. Never ride as a passenger with someone who has been drinking. Alternatively, if you’re going out with friends, take turns to nominate a driver who does not drink during that evening.
Meanwhile, ten motorists were fined between RM1,200 and RM2,200 each by the Traffic Court here yesterday ( 22 July 2009 ) for driving under the influence of alcohol. Senior Assistant Registrar Encik Mohd Faiz Omar meted out the fines on all the accused after they pleaded guilty to their separate charges under Section 45 (1) of theRoad Transport Act 1967, which carries a fine of between RM1,000 and RM6,000 or a jail term of up to 12 months, or both, upon conviction.
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