DORSET residents have backed plans to lower the county's drink drive limit, police bosses say.

The results of a public consultation launched by Dorset Police and Crime Commissioner Martyn Underhill to gain an insight into Dorset residents’ views on the drink drive limit has found that a 72 per cent of Dorset residents would like to see a lower threshold introduced, based on the responses from 2,098 people.

This legislative change would bring the current limit into line with standards seen in Scotland and Europe with the 72 per cent result being consistent with the national British Social Attitudes survey, which found 77 per cent of people think the limit should be lowered.

Scotland saw its drink drive limit lowered in December 2014 to 50 milligrams per 100ml of blood, the 80 milligram limit set in the 1967 Road Safety Act remains in place in England and Wales.

This comes in despite of a review of the drink driving law in 2010 by Sir Peter North who made a recommendation for a reduction to a 50mg legal limit.

Alongside this, on a scale of ‘100 per cent confident’ to ‘not at all confident’, on average, survey participants were only 53 per cent confident that they knew how much alcohol they can legally consume under the current limit.

Meanwhile, 70 per cent expressed a view that if the drink drive limit was lowered, motorists would be more cautious about how much alcohol they consume before driving with 61 per cent adding they would feel safer when travelling in Dorset if the limit was lowered.

Of the participants who stated that they currently consume alcohol before driving, 38 per cent said a lower limit would result in them consuming less alcohol before driving, while 40 per cent would no longer consume any alcohol before getting behind the wheel.

Commenting on the result, Mr Underhill said: “These results clearly indicate that legislative change has the potential to not only affect drivers’ attitudes towards drink driving, but also their behaviour on the roads and ultimately the choices they make.

"The current limit encourages motorists to “risk it”, a lower limit could make people think twice.

“Any blood alcohol level impairs concentration and reaction times. Even a fraction of a second can completely change outcomes on the roads.

"While I recognise that many factors can contribute to collisions, any measure that can help to reduce overall risk is worthy of consideration.”

"In 2016, at least 4 serious injury collisions occurred in Dorset where alcohol was recorded as a contributory factor, but the level of alcohol in the motorists’ blood was below the current legal limit. This is why we need to think again."

Mr Underhill will now raise the issue with the Government in the coming months.