What is there to lose besides a few more lives?
Quebec society is ready to take a new step in road safety. For years, a growing consensus has formed around the need to tighten rules against driving under the influence of alcohol. CAA-Quebec has been asking the government for eighteen years to consider imposing administrative sanctions on drivers with a blood alcohol level of 50 mg/100 ml, and we are far from being the only ones.
In 2023, following the death of Ms. Stéphanie Houle, coroner Yvon Garneau recommended that the Ministry of Transport and Sustainable Mobility and the Société de l'assurance automobile du Québec (SAAQ) conduct an analysis as soon as possible on the feasibility of lowering the blood alcohol limit. The SAAQ has also expressed support for the measure, which according to the analysis, would prevent 3 to 9 deaths and nearly 10 serious injuries each year.
For her part, coroner Geneviève Thériault recommended on April 7 that the SAAQ take the necessary steps to amend the Highway Safety Code so that immediate administrative sanctions are imposed on drivers with a blood alcohol level of at least 50 mg/100 ml. This recommendation concluded a troubling report on the circumstances of the death of a motorcyclist from the Outaouais region, whose vehicle was struck by a driver who had been intercepted by police hours before the tragedy. His blood alcohol level was between 0.05 and 0.099, below the currently allowed limit.
And that's not all, in 2010, a scientific opinion from the Institut national de santé publique du Québec (INSPQ) also supported the reduction of the permitted blood alcohol limit for driving a motor vehicle. The INSPQ also recalled the conclusions of this opinion in an online communication in November 2023. It states that "according to a Quebec study, driving with a blood alcohol level between 51 and 80 mg of alcohol per 100 ml of blood increases the risk of a fatal collision by about four times."
These voices add to ours, which has been recommending these actions in the fight against and awareness of drunk driving since 2007, notably in a brief written as part of the special consultations on bills 42 and 55 amending the Highway Safety Code. Then, our organization returned to the charge in the same circumstances in 2010 (bill 71), in 2022 (bill 22), and in 2024 (bill 48). It is therefore not new that we are asking the government to act to deter motorists from driving after consuming alcohol, but our requests remain unanswered.
What more is needed than recommendations from several coroners, scientific publications, and expert opinions on road safety for the government to commit to amending the Highway Safety Code, with the effect of preventing accidents and ultimately saving lives?
André Durocher - Director of Road Safety and CAA-Quebec Foundation