Controversy simmers in parliament over drink driving limit

Drink driving is responsible for 600 road deaths every year Keystone Archive

The House of Representatives has watered down a proposal to tighten drink-driving regulations. It also said the government was not competent to decide the issue, and that it should be left up to parliament.

The House approved a proposal, supported by the centre and centre-right, to place the drink-driving issue in the hands of parliament rather than Switzerland’s seven-member cabinet. Parliamentarians argued that they could represent better the interests and concerns of voters.

Speakers acknowledged that more needed to be done to improve road safety, but said it would be wrong to limit individual freedom too much. They said account had to be taken of the fact that people in rural areas did not have easy access to public transport, and were obliged to use their own vehicles.

The government has signalled it wants to reduce the drink-driving limit to 0.5 grammes per litre from 0.8 grammes, in line with most other European countries. Britain, the Irish Republic, Italy and Luxembourg are the only European countries with a limit of 0.8 grammes per litre.

Supporters of tighter regulations said many of the 600 deaths and 27,000 injuries on Swiss roads every year are related to drink driving.

The House of Representatives also came out against introducing mandatory courses for motorists in the first three years after getting their drivers’ licences.

However, the House followed the Senate in approving the introduction of a three-year probation period for young drivers.

The bill now goes back to the Senate for further discussions. The government had hoped to put the new traffic law into force at the beginning of next year, but this now seems highly unlikely.

swissinfo with agencies