Daily because of drunk drivers killed 29 Americans and hundreds injured and maimed — a year is more than 10 thousand deaths and tens of thousands of patients of traumatologic offices.
How to reduce the sad statistics scientists know. Members of the governmental Committee of the National academies of Sciences, engineering and medicine offered from 5 ways to solve the problem in his recent report.
The first and main point is the reduction in the allowed rate of alcohol in the blood of motorists. Today throughout the country allowed is increased to 0.08%, but this is too much — convinced members of the Committee.
«At this level of alcohol in blood a person’s ability to drive a car or motorcycle begins to deteriorate, increasing the risk of accidents,» — said in the report.
«States should adopt laws criminalizing driving under the influence, when the content of alcohol in blood is 0.05 %,» — say the authors of the document, citing the positive example of Austria, Denmark and Japan, where policy has produced tangible results.
In addition to the introduction of more stringent norms researchers recommend:
- increase taxes on alcohol
- to impose additional restrictions on the sale of alcohol
- to reduce the amount of alcohol advertising in the media and on television
- set lock ignition on (so-called alcolocks) in the cars of drivers who have been caught drunk driving
- to increase the availability of alternative ways of movement (for example, increase the number of public transport on weekends and at night).
Note that the law on reduction in permissible levels of alcohol for motorists today accepted only in Utah — it will come into force in December 2018.
