John MacDonald: Is it time for a zero-alcohol limit?

I heard a shocking story about someone who went out on Saturday night and, over the course of about five hours, polished off a bottle of wine. 

They didn’t share it with someone else or with other people. A bottle of wine is what this person, themselves, drunk over about five hours while they were at some do, some party. 

Then guess what this person did? They got in their car to drive home. And this is one reason why I think we need to stop messing around when it comes to drink-driving, and why I think we need to have a zero-alcohol limit.  

Because talk about a lottery. Taking a chance. This person obviously thought ‘oh, I’m fine. Yeah, I’ve drunk a bit but, you know, it was over the space of five hours, all good’, and away they went. 

So, what happened on their way home? Yep - they got pulled over by the cops and breath tested, which came back with a zero-alcohol reading and this person said ‘thank you officer, good night’, and drove the rest of the way home. 

The same weekend, another driver thought they could do exactly the same, except they weren’t quite so “lucky”. 

This other person got behind the wheel, was stopped by the cops, they did a breath test on him, and he had a breath-alcohol reading that was nearly 10-times the legal limit. 

He was in Cromwell and blew more than 2,000 milligrams of alcohol per litre of breath. The legal limit in New Zealand is 250. If you’re under 20, it’s zero. And I’m in no doubt it should be zero for everybody. 

As the police are saying today, it is “absurd and dangerous” what these people are doing —driving after drinking so much alcohol— and who could argue with that? 

I remember when John Key’s government reduced the alcohol limit for driving and how, pretty much overnight, everyone I knew was so much more cautious. In fact, I remember people deciding then that they just wouldn’t drive even if they’d had just one drink. They didn’t think it was worth the risk of getting caught.  

But I don’t think that level of vigilance has stuck.  

The other thing too is when you have a legal alcohol limit —whatever it is— it’s still pretty hard for people to decide whether they should be stepping-in and stopping someone from driving. 

Sure, if someone’s slurring their words or staggering around the place, it’s pretty obvious. A lot of the time, though, who would know whether or not someone’s ok to drive? Unless you or they have kept a written record of the intake, again - it’s just a guessing game.  

But if we had a zero-alcohol limit, it would be easy. “You’ve had at least one drink mate, you’re not driving”. No arguments. Easy. 

Now I love a beer or a glass of wine. I also like to think that I know when I should or shouldn’t be driving after I’ve had a drink. Even so, it’s still a bit of a guessing game, isn’t it? Because no one ever really knows.  

And it is possible to go out and not drink. A mate of mine was having a party out of town and I had to drive out there myself. 

So I didn’t drink. I had some no alcohol beers —which were pretty sweet and nowhere near as enjoyable as what I might normally drink— but I made a plan and stuck to it. 

Which is what we would do if it was illegal for anyone to drive with any alcohol at all in their system. And what harm would there be in that? 

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