Road Watchdogs Want Drinking Limit Brought Down For Young Drivers, IMP Discuss The Benefits!

Source: http://www.theportugalnews.com/
IMP follows the report by the president of the National Road Safety Authority (ANSR) has spoken in favour of reducing the legal drink-driving limit from 0.5 grams of alcohol per litre of blood, to 0.2 g/l for young drivers aged 18-24. The Managing Director of IMP, a highly successful sales and marketing company based in Lisbon, says ‘every measure should be taken to keep our roads a safer place, especially over the Christmas season.’
ANSR president Paulo Marques said that the reduction on the alcohol tolerance within that age group would be a “positive measure”, given that 34 percent of road deaths are found to have alcohol readings higher than the current legal limit of 0.5 g/l.‘This is a very scary statistic, knowing this is the case; measures need to be taken to reduce accidents,’ the MD of IMP said.
IMP is based in Lisbon, the success they have had this year has enabled the company to open up a new office in Italy. The Managing Director of IMP states, ‘knowing what we needed to improve on and evaluating our performance is key to helping us move in the right direction. The same thing applies to lowering the drinking limit. Now that it’s a known fact that a huge percentage of accidents are caused due to alcohol action needs to be taken to ensure that this does not continue to happen.’
In 2001 the EU recommended that a 0.2 g/l limit be implemented for young drivers, a measure that is also already pencilled in the National Road Safety Strategy.This comes as last month it was revealed that in 2012 the legal drinking age for youngsters will be pushed up from 16 to 18.Following a series of worrying findings by different studies, the deputy State Secretary for Health said that as of next year the minimum age for drinking and buying alcohol will be increased as part of a set of measures to dissuade youngsters from drinking.
“It is not solely about upping the legal age for buying and consuming alcohol, it is also about implementing important measures regarding how it is advertised, the targets, and how they are targeted, as well as rules about where it is sold”, Fernando Leal da Costa said, speaking to Lusa News Agency.Leal da Costa explained that the measure which is to be implemented next year is based on “a public health concern”, as well as results from other countries where the legal drinking age is 18.
The deputy state secretary believes that selling alcohol to teenagers aged 16 “has led to clear abuses and, besides everything else, it is a well-known fact that alcohol is particularly more toxic in children and teenagers than it is in adults. Our concern imminently is one of public health”, he stressed, adding that alcohol-related diseases are weighing heavy on the health system, costing more than €200 million a year. IMP’s Managing Director agrees with all the reasons why this limit should be changed, saying, “this is a hugely important step in the right direction to improve road safety in Portugal”