Is a total ban on alcohol at the wheel feasible?

In the Netherlands, you can drive with a blood alcohol level of no more than 0.5 per thousand. Safe Traffic Netherlands wants to eliminate this. The organization believes that drinking and driving should be totally banned. But is that doable?

Alcohol or drugs are involved in every fifth traffic accident. For this reason, according to the VVN, much tougher action should be taken against driving under the influence of alcohol. Even getting into the car with two beers (equivalent to about 0.5 per mille) should be banned.

Drivers under the influence of alcohol

The reason for the VVN ruling is a study by the insurance company Univé, which would show that 27 percent of Dutch drivers sometimes drink while driving.

For 10 percent of those surveyed, this is more than the permitted amount and 7 percent of the drivers surveyed even believe that alcohol has no effect whatsoever on their ability to drive.

Total ban difficult to enforce

A total ban should improve road safety, according to the current idea. And then the chance of getting caught must also increase. A more effective combination of prevention and enforcement is already being worked on in The Hague, but there is little political support for a maximum blood alcohol level of 0.0 per cent.

The Road Safety Research Foundation is aware of this, as a total ban on drinking and driving is extremely difficult to implement in practice.

The human body also produces a little alcohol itself, for example through fermentation after a meal. In this way, a little alcohol can get into a person’s blood and this then already has a value of over 0.0 per mille.