Assistant Commissioner of road policing Robert Hill made the statement in Wangaratta yesterday during a meeting with the city’s highway patrol department.

“When we see more than 80 people killed on our roads that have a blood-alcohol reading in excess of .05, that’s an issue for me,” Mr Hill said.

“When we think about the number of people killed or injured on our roads that are between .00 and .05, we need to do some thinking in that space.

“Whether we should bring .05 down to .02 I don’t know … but I’m advocating for community dialogue and research.

“We’ll continue to see people killed on our roads at the same rate if we don’t do something courageous as a community to drive down this road toll.”

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He said in 1990 Sweden reduced its fatal road accidents by 10 per cent after reducing its blood-alcohol limit from .05 to .02.

Along with a four-member ministerial council, Mr Hill is developing a new strategic plan for road safety, to be unveiled by the end of the year.

He has embarked on a five-month information-gathering tour of Victoria to talk with highway patrol departments.

Speed and alcohol were the biggest causes of road accidents.

“My concern is that we still have 287 people killed on our roads as of last year,” Mr Hill said. 

“Each year we have 5000 people seriously injured.

“Since 1970 we’ve had some watershed moments like seatbelts, random breath testing, speed-camera programs, drug testing and TAC commercials.

“We need to start thinking about whether in the year 2012 we need to extend the blood-alcohol limit to .00.

“Is it appropriate at this point in time that .05 is the threshhold?

“The government has put the question out there: is it responsible for anyone to be behind the wheel with any level of alcohol in their system?”

Victorians can have their say by visiting roadsafety.vic.gov.au.