For road users, the 0% blood alcohol limit means that insurers will be within their rights to reject any claim where alcohol has been detected.
Cape Town - Up to 60% of road traffic deaths in South Africa are linked to alcohol consumption, according to a recent World Health Organization Global Status Report on Road Safety, which the Transport Departments hopes to stem with the introduction of a 0% detectable blood alcohol concentration law.
The lowering of the legal limit is seen in the context of a road death crisis that sees around 14 000 people dying on our roads every year.
effectively combated by reducing the allowable alcohol limits for drivers, and that the courts should impose tougher sentences on offenders. Emeritus Professor of Private Law at the University of Pretoria, Professor Hennie Klopper, who heads up the solutions team of the Association for the Protection of Road Accident Victims, says 26 countries have adopted 0% alcohol laws, with very few in the West.
“The higher value is a safety mechanism to protect the motorist against possible unwarranted prosecution while having no substantive effect on driving ability. In the South African context where bribery and corruption is a fact of life, introducing 0.00% BAC does not seem to be a very good idea and may expose motorists to unwanted and unwarranted prosecution.”
In 1996, when the BAC limit was lowered from 0.08% to 0.05% in South Africa, road deaths rose steadily from 10.256 in 1996 to 14 050 in 2017.
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