Volvo aim to reduce drink driving casualties

Volvo Trucks, together with the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC), hosted their third ‘Safe and Sober’ talk at the Houses of Parliament in London last Monday (25th February) in a meeting chaired by Mrs. Louise Ellman MP.

"Driving whilst under influence of alcohol contributes annually to about 10.000 deaths on EU roads", said Dirk De Muynck, communications director at Volvo Group Representation, EU.

He added, “Within the framework of the European Union, the road safety target is to reduce the number of casualties in traffic accidents by 50% by 2010. It is with this in mind that we, together with ETSC, started the ‘Safe & Sober’ campaign in 2007. The aim is to raise awareness amongst policy makers and key opinion leaders for a systematic approach to reduce drink driving in road transport.”

Lennart Pilskog, Public Affairs director at Volvo Truck Corporation showed a film in which showed the consequences of having roughly 0.02% blood alcohol content (BAC) when driving a truck (note, the UK limit is 0.08%; four times higher). The conclusion of this test is that even small amounts of alcohol affect judgement and driving ability.

“Alcohol is involved in about one-third of all serious traffic accidents. That is why Volvo Trucks is focusing heavily on tackling drink driving”, said Lennart Pilskog.

“Our aim is to both change the attitude towards drink driving and also increase the interest in alcolock systems”, added Pilskog.