Drink-driving is a lethal but common form of antisocial behaviour. Rightly, our society does not tolerate it and imposes severe legal sanctions on those guilty of this crime. Yet, for years, our police did not strictly enforce the law against drink-driving; officers often allowed drivers to continue on their way with just a warning if they had only slightly exceeded the legal alcohol limit. Thankfully, the force has now come around and no longer allows officers to exercise discretion. An arrest must be made once a driver has failed a breathalyser test. This welcome change in policy will help save lives.
The legal limit for drivers in Hong Kong is 22 micrograms of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath. However, the police force's traffic procedures manual used to state that people could be allowed to continue driving after being given a warning if their readings did not reach 27 micrograms of alcohol and there were no further grounds to consider them unfit to drive. This discretion had no basis in law and sent an ambiguous message to the community about the extent to which the force was willing to tolerate people driving under the influence of alcohol. It should never have been allowed. If there were doubts about the accuracy of the first test, detained drivers were always given a second test when they were taken to a police station.
Last year, 107 drivers escaped arrest because of the 5-microgram buffer. We have no way of knowing whether these people caused injury or damage after they were let go. However, medical research has repeatedly shown that even a small amount of alcohol is enough to affect a driver's responses and judgment. When the amount is above the legal limit, it is even more likely to impair a driver's ability.
The relevant part of the police manual has now been revised and the buffer scrapped. Since September 21, any driver caught with a test reading above the 22-microgram limit is automatically arrested. Of those detained for drink-driving since that date, 18 would have been let off under the old police rule because their alcohol levels fell within the 5-microgram buffer. The more of these drivers we force off the road, the safer it is for all of us.
Drink-driving is a scourge to civilised society. It imposes a terrible toll of death, injury and damage to property. It also causes untold suffering to victims, their families and the perpetrators. Each year, an average of 35 people are killed or seriously injured by drink-drivers. The death of Kurt Leswing, an American university student, is another tragic reminder. The 21-year-old final-year student at the University of Wisconsin was knocked down early this month in Happy Valley while trying to hail a taxi on Wong Nai Chung Road. The driver has been charged with dangerous driving causing death and driving under the influence of alcohol.
It is tragic to see victims cut down in their prime. It is all the more senseless when we know that drink-drivers could easily have avoided causing accidents if they had acted more responsibly. The new police policy has made the arrest of suspected drink-drivers mandatory; hopefully, it will have a big deterrent effect. Coupled with an amendment to the traffic law that allows officers to conduct random breath tests without reasonable suspicion, it ought to put irresponsible drivers on notice. It needs to be made widely known so that drivers are under no illusion that police officers still have leeway to let them go. We will never reduce the toll of deaths and injuries from drink-driving to zero, but police must strictly enforce the law to reduce it by as much as possible.
