Random breath testing: a successful policy recipe

Australia, amongst the most highly motorised countries in the world, pays a high price for motorised transport. Deaths and injuries aside, the financial costs are estimated to be in the vicinity of $15 billion annually. Crash causation is constantly examined by a broad range of bureaucracies, researchers, motoring organisations, community groups and Government committees so that policies are focussed on counteracting the most prominent issues in a cost effective manner. Numerous public policies implemented throughout New South Wales (NSW) in the 1970s and early 1980s years have attempted to curb the alcohol related road toll. The list includes the introduction of a legal blood alcohol limit of 0.08 in 1968, increases in fines for drink-driving from $400 to $1000 in 1978, licence disqualification for first offenders in 1979, mandatory breath testing of drivers following a crash or certain traffic offences in 1980 and later that year, a reduction of the legal blood alcohol concentration (BAC) from 0.08 to 0.05.