Brake has joined a number of other groups in calling for the Government to cut down the current UK drink-drive limit. The road safety charity is working alongside the RAC Foundation, the AA and IAM RoadSmart to campaign for changes. The charity has also claimed that there is strong public support for lowering the limit, with the recent British Social Attitude Survey suggesting that three quarters of the public (77 per cent) currently support the idea. Though the Government maintains the view that drink driving 'remains a priorityî, there has been no reduction in the number of drink-driving deaths since 2010, according to Brake's data. Each year, drink-driving causes an average of 240 deaths and 8,000 casualties in Britain, with the total cost reaching £800 million. Gary Rae, director of communications and campaigns for the charity, said: 'Drink-driving remains one of the biggest causes of devastating road crashes; often young and inexperienced drivers and passengers are involved and frequently they are the tragic victims. 'We must continue to send a clear message to all drivers that drinking and driving is a lethal cocktail. 'It's shocking to see how many crashes, many involving deaths and serious injuries, have involved men in their 20s. This call to action today is a useful stepping stone to a time when there is a zero alcohol limit.î The drink-drive limit in England and Wales is amongst the highest in the world at 80mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood. It is higher than in every European country except Malta and is also higher than those found in Commonwealth countries like Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. Brake believes that reducing the limit to 50mg per 100ml of alcohol could reduce drink-driving deaths by around 10 per cent. The Government of Malta recently announced plans to lower their own limit to 50mg earlier this month. Scotland made the reduction in December 2014 and police figures showed that there was a 12.5 per cent decrease in drink-drive offences within the first nine months. Katherine Brown, the director at the Institute of Alcohol Studies, said: 'Recent decades have seen great improvements in road safety, but progress on drink-driving has ground to a halt. With hundreds of lives lost each year, we can't afford to let England and Wales fall behind our neighbours in road safety standards. 'It's time the Government looked at the evidence and what other countries are doing to save lives and make roads safer. We need to make drink-driving a thing of the past, and to do this we need a lower drink-drive limit.î
