The Current Affairs of DUI Laws in Australia

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Over the past few years there have been staggering numbers of deaths and related injuries caused from driving under the influence. Between the years of 2006 and 2010 there were 568 people aged just 12-25 who were admitted into hospitals with serious and life threatening injuries caused from a vehicle accident where the driver was intoxicated. Unfortunately, the numbers will continue to rise because even drivers with a relatively low blood alcohol content have slowed reactions, and a distorted thought process. Inevitably, the DUI laws are put into the spotlight when taking into account these frightening statistics.

Effects Of Alcohol on Driving

Many understand that getting a DUI in Australia is because the traffic laws alcohol limit is .05 and they surpassed it. Unfortunately that limit has been in place for around thirty years and cars, technology, and people have drastically changed since then.

Now we are more than aware of how even a few drinks of alcohol can affect us. Not only does even the smallest amount of alcohol decrease our cognition and reaction time, but it also works to boost our confidence and risk taking! This deadly combination is what has led to countless deaths across Australia over the years, and it is not going to change unless the alcohol limit is decreased.

Previous Lowering of the BAC

Prior to the blood alcohol content being .05 in Australia, it used to be .08. When Australia decided that the traffic laws alcohol limit should finally be lowered to .05 the results were phenomenal. There was a surprisingly high percentage (58%) of individuals with a BAC above .2 who were reduced and no longer found drink driving. In addition to that number, those who had a blood alcohol content between .15 and .2 actually dropped as well by around 34%!

Shock Value

Unfortunately teens and young adults who drink drive are often not going to stop until they are either caught or are shown the potentially horrific results of their actions. Shock value has done wonders to scare individuals straight, but is it really necessary?

A recent study showed that more than 20% of men admitted to driving while drunk in the ACT. Additionally, the statistics have shown that, in 2012, individuals under 35 years old who were caught drink driving accounted for more than 60% of the entire DUI number that year. This only goes to show that the younger generation desperately needs stricter measures on the blood alcohol content, otherwise, there will continue to be massive numbers of deaths attributed to drink driving in Australia!

Fortunately a program called P.A.R.T.Y. - Prevent Alcohol and Risk Related Trauma in Youth has been set up to help give students and drivers first hand knowledge of where their actions could lead should they drink drive. The P.A.R.T.Y. program has been found to be surprisingly effective and is found worldwide because of its positive impact on young adults.

According to the results from the P.A.R.T.Y. program, it was shown that individuals who have taken the program were more than twice more likely to obey the speed limit and road laws than individuals who hadn’t. In fact not only were they more than willing to avoid texting and driving, but also drink driving and other dangerous road habits!
Recent Events

On December 5th of this year a woman was sentenced to four years in jail for drink driving and running down a man crossing the street. That man was Gary Mara and he had been with his wife and eight year old child as he was on his way to his birthday party. Despite having destroyed his family with his untimely and brutal death, the woman was only ordered to pay $100,000 to his family and serve jail time.

These incidences happen on a daily basis, and it is a horrible tragedy that no family should go through. Children growing up without parents, couples losing their spouses, and entire families being ripped to shreds all because of inconsiderate drivers who drive under the influence of alcohol.

Changing and correcting the current laws that apply to DUI and lowering the alcohol limit to either .02 or .03 would be a drastic improvement and could potentially save thousands of lives. As previous data shows, when the blood alcohol content limit is lowered, not only are those who are well over the limit less likely to be caught driving, but so are the number of people caught driving even with BAC’s lower than what is legal.

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