MPs can pass a life-saving law, or be responsible for every ensuing death

Every day, somewhere in our nation, lives are shattered because someone chose to drive under the influence of alcohol or drugs. The grieving families, the survivors with life-changing injuries, and the professionals who witness these tragedies firsthand all carry the same message: enough is enough.

Random roadside testing for alcohol and drugs is not a luxury - it is a proven lifesaver. Countries that have taken decisive action have seen immediate and dramatic reductions in road deaths.

In New South Wales, Australia, the introduction of random breath testing cut alcohol-related fatalities by 22% in just one year. In Ireland, the first year of testing brought a 23% drop in deaths. Finland’s commitment to frequent random testing has given it one of the lowest rates of drink-driving fatalities in Europe. Victoria, Australia, halved the number of drug-positive drivers on its roads within five years.

The reason is simple. Random testing works because it changes behaviour. When drivers know they can be stopped anywhere, anytime - without warning - they think twice before drinking or using drugs. Offenders are removed from the road immediately, and over time, society’s tolerance for impaired driving collapses.

Suspicion-based testing alone misses far too many offenders. By contrast, random testing ensures the certainty of detection, which is the single strongest deterrent against impaired driving.

Emergency doctors and CPD officials on the scene of an accident.

At the incident scene, I have seen the human emotion reacting to this  devastation too many times. Still fresh in my mind is one young man, barely out of his twenties, sitting on the roadside, his hands trembling as he realises that the mother-of-two he ran over while driving home after a night of partying had died. He didn’t shout, he didn’t argue. His face simply drained of colour and despair.  In that moment, the realisation that a few drinks had destroyed not just one life but a whole family was almost too much for him to comprehend.

And yet, for every silent look of horror, there are others where rage fills the void. Alcohol and drugs do not only impair reaction times — they inflame tempers. The responding EMS Team has witnessed victims of crashes that began with a horn blast, a shouted insult, or a reckless overtaking manoeuvre, fuelled by alcohol-induced bravado and aggression. Too often, what starts as road rage ends as a road death.

For emergency physicians, these memories do not fade. The silence of the waiting room when the Lead Emergency Physician delivers the news that a loved one will never come home are the moments that stay with us long after the sirens stop.

Parliament now faces a choice. It can pass this law and save lives, or it can delay and bear responsibility for every preventable death that follows. The evidence is clear, the human cost is undeniable, and the moral duty is urgent. Random roadside testing must be implemented — not next year, not someday, but now.

Dr Jonathan Joslin is a consultant emergency physician.