Lorry drivers know that drinking and driving is wrong and
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likely to cost them their job. But how many have a few beers at a truckstop the night before and are unwittingly over the limit when they set off in the morning? Patrick Hook talks to hauliers who call time on offenders.
T. most within the haulage industry, the thought of drinking and driving is just not acceptable. The tolerance for drink/driving among hauliers is zero— not 80mg, not 50mg, but zero.
Yet last year there were still 10 HGV drivers who tested positive in accidents in which people were killed or seriously injured and a further 50 who tested positive in accidents in which there were less serious casualties.
This does not include those who tested positive in circumstances not involving accidents and, of course, those who were over the limit but not caught.
Fundamental
During the summer senior police officers from all over England and Wales met to discuss an issue of fundamental interest to all road users.
The issue was whether or not to recommend to the Government a reduction in the permitted amount of alcohol in the blood of drivers from the current 80mg to 50mg. That proposal was subsequently ratified by the Association of Chief Police Officers at their general meeting earlier this month. A similar proposal had already been agreed by the British Medical Association.
Yet the Government continues to insist that the limit (of 80mg) is pitched where, for most people, the serious risk of an accident starts to climb. Their argument is that, as politicians, they have to carry the population with them rather than impose a limit that will be widely ignored. It is a similar argument to those used to delay the introduction of safety helmets for motorcyclists or the wearing of seat belts in cars or the warning message on packets of cigarettes.
Attitude
"What we have to do is get the attitude of mind where people who are driving do not drink," says Transport Minister John amis. The problem is that people continue to be killed as a direct result of drink/driving There are good medical reasons the concentration of alcohol in the blood can never be set at zero, as the body naturally carries around 7mg of alcohol per 100m1 of blood but finding a figure which would mean no drink for drivers should not be difficult. Certainly many haulage companies have a policy on the subject that effectively means no alcohol for several hours before starting work and then throughout the working day. It is a policy which has, over the years, paid handsome dividends.
"Drink/driving is simply not an issue in the UK haulage industry," says Mel Thornton of the United Road Transport Union. "We just do not have drivers queuing up for advice on drink-related problems, I can remember only one case in the past six years in which a member was breathalysed and even he was acquitted at court."
The policy pursued by TNT is by no means unusual. No-one from the managing director downwards is permitted to take any alcoholic drink during the time that he or she is on duty and any employee arriving for work who is considered unfit for work through drink can be expected to be suspended pending a disciplinary hearing.
There are no half measures and no exceptions. The regime is as strict as it is necessary. But, for the initiative to work, there needed to be some explanation and TNT ensured that the training which all drivers undergo included an input about the effect that drinking has on driver behaviour.
A similar message came from the Fifebased haulier United Freight Distribution, whose human resource and training manager is Betty MacDonald. "Most of our drivers have been with the company for a number of years but all have an induction programme of between two and five days, depending on their level of experience and this includes an element on drink/driving. Any driver who reports for work in a state of intoxication will be sent home."
In the case of United Freight, the system of checks is supported by four driver trainers who keep a close eye on any change in mood or behaviour among the 60 or so drivers.
This is backed by the day-to-day contact which the company's traffic controllers have with the men. It is a cause of quiet satisfaction for the company that in 10 years no driver has been dismissed and only one has been required to undergo counselling for drinkrelated problems.
But the need for vigilance exists and it would be a mistake to think that the industry has totally solved the problem of drink/driving among its professional drivers.
Accident
In May this year, at Manchester Crown Court, truck driver Andrew Stockton was found guilty of driving his LG17 with more than twice the legal limit of alcohol in his blood, despite not drinking since the night before his accident His actions caused the death, at 08:40hrs, of a 24-year-old student and resulted in a two-year prison sentence. He is reported to have said to the court: "I had been drinking the night before and didn't realise the alcohol was in my system for that length of time."
Stockton's case highlights a popular idea that 'you can sleep it off' in a few hours and be ready to drive the next morning. Nothing could be further from the truth. Alcohol is dissipated from the blood at the rate of around 15mg of alcohol per 100m1 of blood per hour regardless of body size.
According to Dr John Mundy of the Forensic Science Laboratory in London, there is no safe limit of alcohol intake, a view shared by the road haulage safety campaigning group Brake which, while urging the "zero tolerance" option, tempers the view with a sense of realism.
Arguing that the problem of drink/driving has not yet been properly assessed, Brake's director Mary Williams believes good personnel management systems could nip any emerging problem in the bud.
"You can't treat a driver as a stand-alone entity when he walks through the door of his workplace," says Williams. "He is a human being who has other external factors working upon him."
For those who refuse to listen until it is too late, there is one last chance.
Rehabilitation courses for convicted drink/drivers are now set to continue until the end of this cenmry DOT figures indicate that some, finally, take heed.
In the first six months after sentencing, only 0.2% of those attending a course reoffended compared with 1.4% among those that did not attend.
And, while it is hardly cause for celebration, the number of people killed on UK roads last year was the lowest on record and the number of breath tests administered increased by 172%. You can forget "One for the road".
E by Patrick Hook