Drink driving
Crashes
On average 3,000 people are killed or seriously injured each year in drink drive collisions.
- Nearly one in six of all deaths on the road involve drivers who are over the legal alcohol limit.
- Drinking and driving occurs across a wide range of age groups but particularly among young men aged 17-29 in both casualties and positive breath tests following a collision.
- The latest provisional figures, from 2003, show that some 560 people were killed in crashes in which a driver was over the legal limit.
- Some 20,000 lives are estimated to have been saved in the last 13 years thanks to central government drink drive campaigns.
The legal limit in the UK is 80 milligrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of blood.
- Test results can depend on many factors such as the amount and type of alcoholic drink, your weight, sex, age, food intake and metabolism.
- The only safe option is not to drink any alcohol if you plan to drive and never offer an alcoholic drink to anyone else who is driving.
- Alcohol affects your ability to drive safely as your reaction times are impaired and you're unable to judge speed and distances.
- People who drive at twice the current legal alcohol level are at least 50 times more likely to be involved in a fatal car crash.
- And if you think you won't get caught, more than half a million breath tests are carried out each year and on average 100,000 are found to be positive.
If you've been out drinking you may still be affected by alcohol the next day. You may feel OK, but you may still be unfit to drive or over the legal alcohol limit.
- You could still lose your licence if you drive the next day when you're still over the legal alcohol level.
- It's impossible to get rid of alcohol any faster. A shower, a cup of coffee or other ways of 'sobering up' will not help. It just takes time.
Do you ALWAYS make sure your passengers wear seatbelts? Thank you for your vote!
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