BENDIGO Inspector Brad Dixon is unwilling to support the proposed reduction of the blood alcohol limit, saying there are too many unanswered questions to form an opinion.
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Victoria Police has called for Victoria's legal blood alcohol limit to be dropped from 0.05 to 0.02 to reduce road deaths and trauma.
It follows statistics from Melbourne media that more than 14,000 drink-drivers caught with a blood alcohol level of up to .069 have kept their licenses in the past five years. Inspector Dixon said while it was important to get the debate into the public arena, it was hard to form an opinion without all the facts.
" If the evidence is there to suggest that by doing this, it will mean less people get killed on the roads, then we should discuss it," he said.
"We also need to consider the other aspects of this as part of the debate though - more people charged equals more police time off the road and more people in courts and in jails."
He questioned what penalties would be imposed for the lower level and whether it would discourage people to not drink.
Victoria's two major political parties rejected the call on Thursday, saying such a change would have a negative impact on the hospitality sector. "It would need a huge amount of research and science to convince the government of the need to change," Premier Denis Napthine said.
Opposition Leader Daniel Andrews said the appropriate focus should be on the loophole which potentially prevents individuals who record levels up to 0.07 from losing their licence.