European Conservatives and Reformists Group (ECR) is exploring whether there should be a mandate for all Eurozone countries to fit an alcohol-interlock system to drivers’ cars that have a previous drink driving conviction.
The ECR was created in 2009 to campaign for push for reforms in Europe.
A European Commission study of 20,000 drivers across 19 member states showed that while 94% of people surveyed believe alcohol substantially increases the chance of an accident, 31% still said they would still run the risk of drinking and driving.
An alcohol interlock device is a system installed in a vehicle to prevent a driver impaired by alcohol from operating the vehicle.
Szabolcs Schmidt, EC head of unit for road safety, alcohol and road safety, said: “It is beyond any doubt that drinking and driving do not fit together.
“Around 25% of the fatal accidents on European roads are related to alcohol consumption and up to 6000 lives could be saved each year.”
Violeta Bulc, EC commissioner for transport, said Europe needs to take a three-pronged approach to tackle drink driving.
She said: “We need to make drink driving socially unacceptable, there must be more visible enforcement on our roads and we must examine the latest technology available that can help us.”
One problem brought up in an ECR conference about alcohol interlocks was the problem of professional drivers going between borders with different drink driving limits.
A suggestion from an alcohol-interlock manufacturer was that the system could be updated to the correct legal alcohol blood level value by GPS using connected vehicle technology.
The European Commission has already introduced a harmonised European Union code on the use of alcohol interlock devices.
The EC said: “A harmonised EU code will facilitate EU-wide understanding of the restriction [using alcohol-interlocks] as well as enable member states to enforce it.
“However it is still for the member states to decide both whether or not to introduce such programmes and how to enforce the restriction.”
