Bermuda has as long way to go before attitudes change towards drink-driving, and lowering the legal alcohol limit may be an approach worth considering, the Commissioner of Police has suggested.

Darrin Simons told The Royal Gazette that there should be no doubt in a motorist’s mind as to whether they are able to drive a vehicle after drinking alcohol.

He said: “I still think we have a fair way to go in changing the culture and attitudes around drink-driving in Bermuda.

“I think things like reducing the blood-alcohol limit to a much lower number would be helpful.”

Under Section 35A of the Road Traffic Act 1947, the prescribed limit is set at 80mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood, equivalent to 0.08 per cent blood-alcohol concentration.

Mr Simons said: “If the blood-alcohol limit was something like 0.03 per cent, that effectively means you cannot consume any alcohol and get in a car within eight hours.

“At least then, from a legislative perspective, we're not creating this opportunity for people to wonder, when they’ve had a drink, if they are impaired.”

Roadside sobriety testing was introduced in 2018 as a deterrent against drink-driving. There was a sharp rise in the number of arrests after its launch, with 366 that year and 341 in 2019, compared with 190 in 2017 and 163 in 2016.

Figures dropped during Covid-19 pandemic conditions as many sheltered in place or followed lockdown orders, before they stabilised with the numbers only slightly higher than before the checkpoints were introduced.

Mr Simons said: “It's hard to say that roadside sobriety testing has had a major impact on the actual numbers of people that are involved in drink-driving, people that are caught for drink-driving and people who are impaired when they're having accidents. I'm seeing similar types of numbers.”

He said he was aware of other countries that were able to leverage more out of their roadside sobriety testing legislation.

He explained: “In Bermuda, each checkpoint is a big deal. It takes about eight officers to mount a roadside sobriety checkpoint.

“I've driven in Canada and at the on-ramp to a highway where you have got a single cop stopping people and asking, ‘Have you had anything to drink?’

“We don't have the ability to do that because of the way the legislation is; there are constitutional issues associated with it.”

Constitutional concerns were raised before the introduction of the checkpoints. As the law stands, their locations must be announced ahead of time.

However, Bermuda has stop-and-search measures, also referred to as Section 315F of the Criminal Code Act, which Martin Weekes, the assistant police commissioner, told the Gazette last year was likely the Bermuda Police Service’s most effective tool for fighting knife crime.

Some organisations, including Citizens Uprooting Racism in Bermuda, have argued that stop-and-search tactics are unconstitutional.

Mr Simons welcomed legislation recently passed enabling on-road training for those learning to ride a motorcycle through Project Ride.

“Giving new riders the opportunity to have on-road experience is important, and it's going to contribute to their skill and ability,” he said.

“Education is one of the key components in reducing road harm, and these changes in Project Ride are going a step in that right direction.”

Project Ride is a training programme for those approaching and aged 16.

Mr Simons made clear that it was not young riders who made up the majority of road fatalities and those who sustained life-changing injuries in Bermuda.