proposals to get drunks off Island roads By Matthew Taylor The legal drink drive limit could be slashed dramatically this year Road Safety Officer Roxanne Christopher has revealed.

And Ms Christopher said she feared that local drink driving arrest figures could be the tip of the iceberg in a Country where it was too socially acceptable.

She said: "We're looking at recommending tougher sentences.'' Transport Minister Ewart Brown confirmed legislation to lower the legal limit, from the current level of 80 milligrams of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood, could be enacted this year.

However neither the Transport Minister nor the Road Safety Officer wished to speculate on what the new figure would be.

He said: "We are considering lowering the legal alcohol limit for driving and in this session you will see some clear-cut policies about that.'' Ms Christopher continued: "Bermuda is one of the more liberal places. I think our laws haven't been revised to catch up with the times.

"The Police are scratching the surface.

In addition, said Ms Christopher, a points system would have to be put in place to allow consistency and fairness when assessing penalties.

And she said the possible introduction of a re-education programme for repeat offenders was being studied.

"This is vital,'' she said, "because once you serve your three years off the road you can just get back your licence.

"It would involve classroom exercises on the laws of the road and teaching people how to reverse, park properly and handle a car in inclement weather.

"That will be in the National Driver Education plan, as well, which I will recommend to the Minister. We need it because of the high number of repeat offenders on our roads.

"We can't assume it's intentional that offenders are repeating. Maybe they have forgotten or they don't know.'' The youth will be targetted with the inclusion of a drink driving aspect in Project Ride, created by the Council on Alcohol & Drug Abuse.

Ms Christopher said Bermuda had to be more responsible because everyone was at risk on the Island's roads.

She noted: "It's something that affects every single one of us. It's not just one sector of the community.'' And one of the main factors behind the epidemic was the Island's acceptability of drinking, and driving.

"Alcohol consumption is an accepted way of life. This has gone on for far more years than we have been combating drink driving,'' said Ms Christopher.

"People see their parents drink driving, their siblings doing it, neighbours, friends doing it for years. People will much rather drive drunk than be a passenger with a bunch of people sharing a ride.'' It even affected visitors to the Island, she pointed out, who often came from countries with far stricter drink driving laws.

"And expats drive intoxicated in a way they would never do at home because they see it practised. I know when I go to the States you just don't drink and drive because of the penalties,'' said Ms Christopher.

"In the States it's just a given that you are going to have a designated driver, the penalties far surpass the risk of drinking and driving and that hasn't caught on as much here.

Another factor was the "superman mentality -- `I can have four or five drinks and I'm OK','' she continued.

"People think they drive better after a few drinks when in reality their reflexes are slowed down.'' New plans would curb drunk drivers "A lot of people escape detection through luck and it reinforces the superman theory that they can drink and drive because they have had that angel on their shoulder guiding them home.'' These "repeat offenders'' were the main problems on the Island's roads, said Ms Christopher.

"It's not so much the teens. It's the people who have got home one time too many who feel they can definitely do this all the time that are involved in most of the accidents.

"People don't realise that it's not worth taking that drive home and ending someone's life rather than spending $30 and taking a taxi home. And it costs taxpayers millions of dollars in repairing the walls, in repairing the bus shelters etcetera.

"It's not worth paralysing someone else or even yourself by driving home drunk.

"We have become desensitised to the loss of life on our roads. The point is that mothers end up without a son, that wife is without a husband etcetera.'' Drink driving arrests have fallen since from 108 in 1996 to 90 in 1998 but Ms Christopher said she feared that this may not be the true picture.

She said: "There is a problem getting the data to find out how many accidents there are involving alcohol. That's something we're working on so we can be accurate as opposed to speculating. Where are the problem spots? What time of the day does it occur? "Current stats don't give enough information to pinpoint where the problem is and deal with it.

"We are working on getting better data so I can know that my advertising dollar is going to the right market. Unfortunately now we're guessing and that's what we need to stop doing.'' Ms Christopher takes her safe driving message into schools, PTAs, sports clubs and neighbourhood watches.

"We are asking companies to create their own designated driving programme for employees who indulge in happy hour to promote responsibility. Let's have rewards for employees who participate in these programmes.'' And she is finding help from all quarters.

She explains: "The Council on Drug & Alcohol Abuse have created a responsible servants programme and many of the large establishments have been training their bar staff in becoming responsible servers of alcohol.

"It's a great programme. Tom Gallagher, of Flanagans, has been a major supporter of this programme to make sure that all of his employees have become responsible servers to be able to know when a customer has had enough.

"But it shouldn't be the bartenders' responsibility to decrease drink driving.

And, despite the scale of the task, Ms. Christopher said she thought drink driving arrests could be seriously reduced.

She said: "I believe we will significantly reduce drink driving. Life is about change.

"To tackle drink driving we need to update our penalties, we need to provide better public transportation and we need more public education.

"With those three things in place they are the tools to curb drinking and driving.

" Public transport needs to be improved and it's going to be improved so it won't be as much of an issue.

"Whether it's bus, minibus or ferries, there's going to be a domino effect.

Minibuses definitely are an option. A lot of our roads are too small or the bus stops a mile from their home.

"Even if the bus was running till 3 a.m., if people have to walk for ages they still won't want to catch the bus. A minibus could address that problem.'' Tomorrow, The Royal Gazette reports on claims of how random breath testing could halve the number of serious head injuries.

TCD honours top drivers See Page 7 Roxanne Christopher Road Warriors: (From left) Police Commissioner Jean Jacques Lemay, Chief Inspector Roger Kendall, Transport Minister Ewart Brown, Road Safety Officer Roxanne Christopher and Road Safety Council Chairperson Pandora Wright took centre stage at the kick-off of National Road Safety Week, on Monday.