Drivers in the Hepburn Shire who like to push the limits of what is permissible after a few drinks had better beware.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
That grey area of what might just be allowable or even in a more naive age receive a let-off altogether now comes under the same swathe of harsh penalties.
New laws which came into effect from Monday mean drivers who blow between 0.05 and 0.069 will lose their licence for at least three months.
They will also be forced to have an interlock device fitted for six months after getting back on the road.
Under the new laws, people caught behind the wheel under the influence of alcohol or drugs will have to complete a behavioural program.
First-time drug drivers will also lose their licence for six months, up from three, with repeat offenders forced off the road for a year. The measures will also cover drivers coming form interstate.
All our personal estimations about just how much anybody should drink or if in fact they should be drinking at all before they drive will need a serious rethink. So too will the education campaigns which attempt to establish the vague and often un-scientific calculations about how many beers before you are taking a risk.
The consequence for anybody who makes the mistake in what was once the low range of .05 to ,08 now will bear the same harsh penalties.
For those who consider it unnecessarily draconian, the TAC and Roads Minister were making no apologies about using the big stick as a way of removing the drink factor as a cause of fatalities altogether.
"Everybody who is affected by drugs and alcohol will have the same rules apply, whether you're (on) a Victorian licence at the time or you're coming interstate and wish to get a Victorian licence," Minister Luke Donnellan said.
At least in this the message which has now been around for four decades is bluntly clear.
But in spruiking the new laws, the state's Transport Accident Commission has also noted driving skills begin to be impaired at a blood-alcohol level of 0.02.
So the next discussion that needs to be had is why .05 at all? Is the number arbitrary and at what point does impairment begin?
Should policing go down the path of .00, now endured by P-platers, would it save lives or cause altogether more confusion.
