Tougher rules on drink-driving, eye tests for older motorists and automatic emergency braking in new cars will be mandated by the government in an attempt to significantly reduce casualties on Britain\u2019s roads.<\/p>\n
The first road safety strategy in more than a decade aims to save thousands of lives with a range of measures, from training and technology to stiffer penalties for offenders.<\/p>\n
The proposals, to be announced on Wednesday, seek to reduce fatalities and serious injuries on Britain\u2019s roads by 65% by 2035. The number of deaths has declined since the 1970s but that improvement slowed around 2010, with 22 European countries making better progress than the UK since then, according to the Department for Transport.<\/p>\n
The government will consult on lowering the drink-drive limit in England and Wales, which has remained unchanged since 1967 and is the highest in Europe, at 35 micrograms of alcohol per 100ml of breath. It could be cut to 22 micrograms, in line with the limit in Scotland since 2014.<\/p>\n
Convicted drink-drive offenders could be forced to use an \u201calcolock\u201d to be allowed to drive again \u2013 a device that only allows a vehicle to start when the driver passes a breath test. Suspected drink- or drug-driving offenders could have their licenses suspended pending confirmation of roadside tests to prevent further accidents before they are convicted or cleared.<\/p>\n
Fines will be doubled for uninsured drivers, while penalty points will be incurred for not wearing a seatbelt, on top of the current fines.<\/p>\n
Young and new drivers could be required to undertake a three-to-six-month minimum learning period to allow them to develop skills in varied conditions such as night driving, adverse weather and heavy traffic.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, as the number of older drivers increases in line with the ageing population<\/a>, the government will propose mandatory eyesight exams for the over-70s every three years, as well as looking at options for cognitive testing.<\/p>\n New vehicles will also need to have autonomous emergency braking (AEB), among 18 safety technologies that are now widely available in cars and mandatory in Europe, but not yet in Britain. AEB automatically slows a vehicle when sensors detect an impending collision.<\/p>\n The change will be known as Dev\u2019s law, in memory of the eight-year-old son of Meera Naran MBE, who has campaigned to make such safety technology mandatory<\/a> since Dev\u2019s death in a motorway collision in 2018.<\/p>\n