Drink and drug driver roadside ban could make big difference

Dangerous driving of all kinds has long been an issue in the borough, which has seen several high profile cases of people killed or injured by drunk or drug using drivers in recent years.

Now the National Police Chiefs’ Council has proposed that legal changes allowing officers to ban people instantly after failing tests for drugs and alcohol could help curb deaths and injuries.

Bolton Council cabinet member for stronger communities Cllr Rabiya Jiva said: “Just one person killed or injured on our roads is too many.

“Road safety is one of the biggest issues that people raise with me in Bolton and we are determined to do all we can to tackle dangerous driving, whether it involved drink and drugs or not.”

Cllr Rabiya Jiva (Image: Newsquest)

She added: “When people decide to get behind the wheel after drinking or taking illegal drugs they put not only their own lives at risk, they put everyone at risk.

“It is absolutely unacceptable that any decent law-abiding person could be put at risk in this way because someone else thought they were OK to drive while intoxicated.

“While I will need to see the details of this proposal, I would certainly be open to anything that helps keep people on our roads here in Bolton safe.”

Between 2018 and 2020 as many as 30 people were killed or injured in a crash in Bolton where the driver either failed a breathalyser test or refused to take one.

These findings from the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities mean drink driving incidents accounted for two per cent of all casualties on the borough’s roads during that time.

The instant bans proposal was made by Chief Constable Jo Shiner, the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for roads policing.

She has also said that she wants to see tougher punishments for drivers who kill while under the influence, including potential murder charges.

Chief Constable Shiner said: “The ability for us to be able to disqualify people either for drink or drug-driving by the roadside would mean that we can immediately take that risk off the road.

ALSO READ: Police praised for role in reducing death and injury caused by drink-driving

ALSO READ: Drug driving arrests three times higher than drink driving

ALSO READ: Drug and drink driver 'fled the scene' of fatal crash which killed cyclist

“And those people haven’t got the ability to be behind the wheel, particularly if they’ve blown well over the legal limit.”

She added: “We should have greater sentencing and far greater sentences particularly for those people who do kill or seriously injure people on the roads.

“I liken it to some of the homicide investigations, to some of the sentences that we get for murders, I actually do believe that if someone makes that decision to get behind the wheel, under the influence of drink or drugs, that is a conscious decision they have made to get into a vehicle and therefore to put other people at risk.

“I think we really do need to work hard on making sure that we’re strengthening the sentencing and making sure that we are properly using, where we can, sentencing that is already available to us.”