Drink driving – 99% of Maltese do not know legal limit
James Debono Eurobarometer statistics reveal that only 1% of the Maltese know that the legal limit beyond which drink driving is punishable by law is 0.8 g/l.
While 8% gave an incorrect answer, 91% said that they did not know when asked to state the legal limit in a EU wide Eurobarometer survey.
The Maltese are surpassed in ignorance only by the Cypriots and Italians, none of whom gave a correct answer.
Apart from the UK and Ireland, Malta is the only country in Europe to have a limit of 0.8 g/l. In most other countries the legal limit is 0.5 g/l, while Romania has a limit of zero.
Awareness of the legal limit beyond which drink driving is punishable by law is low across the European Union.
Little over a quarter of respondents (27%) were able to give a correct answer when asked what the legal blood alcohol limit for driving is in their country. More than one third (36%) gave an incorrect answer, while an equal number (37%) professed ignorance.
Awareness of the legal limit was highest in the Czech Republic where 75% knew the correct answer. Awareness was also high in Austria (69%) and Finland (67%).
Moreover 43% of the Maltese could not even answer a question on how many alcoholic drinks they can consume in the two hours before driving. A further 9% replied “depends” while 20% replied that one could still drive after having more than two drinks.
The Maltese were surpassed only by the Romanians in their ignorance on the safe number of units they can consume before driving.
The survey also shows that 26% of Maltese respondents reported drinking five or more drinks at least once a week. This shows that the frequency of binge drinking in Malta tends to be lower than in the rest were 29% drink more than 5 drinks once a week.
Although the Maltese binge less frequently than other Europeans, when they do actually indulge in alcohol consumption, they tend to consume more units.
When they drink, 20% of the Maltese drink more than five drinks. This is double the EU average of 10%. Furthermore, 10% take more than seven drinks when they drink compared to just 4% of other European countries.
When it comes to drinking more than five drinks at a time the Maltese are only surpassed by the Irish (26%) the British (24%), the Danes (23%) and the Finns (23%).
But when it comes to drinking more than seven drinks at a time the Maltese are only surpassed by the British and are at par with the Finns and the Danes.
On the other hand the survey shows that while 29% of the Maltese have abstained from taking any alcohol in past year, 17% drink on a daily basis. Daily consumption in Malta is three percentage points higher than an EU average of 14%.
Findings at a glance
1% - know the legal drink-driving limit
26% - have more than five drinks a week
10% - have more than 10 drinks a week
29% - abstained from alcohol over past year
17% - drink on a daily basis
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