Fall in Christmas drink-drivers - Confused.com

17/01/13

By Angela Rees

The Christmas anti-drink-drive message appears to have got by means of to motorists as fewer people failed a breath test than the year before.

Despite police testing far more drivers in England and Wales in December than the same period in 2011, the failure or refusal rate fell from 7,124 out of 156,569 tested (4.55 per cent) to 7,123 out of 175,831, down to 4.05 per cent.

The figures incorporated a fall amongst young drivers aged 20-24, the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) stated. A lot more than 1,000 much more drivers in the age category have been breath-tested in December 2012 compared with 2011, but with 104 fewer young drivers failing tests.

Nonetheless, the 2012 figures overall were still greater than in December 2010 when 6,662 (3.91 per cent) failed or refused out of a total of 170,552.

ACPO’;s roads policing head, deputy chief constable Suzette Davenport, said: “It’;s great to see that however once again the majority of drivers are accountable and sensible. Our outcomes show that by far the majority of drivers stopped did not drink or take drugs and drive. We produced it completely clear to drivers ahead of Christmas that we would be stepping up our efforts to breathalyse them. It is encouraging to see the message has got via to even far more drivers than final year.”

Regardless of the achievement of the Christmas campaign, she pledged that police would continue to concentrate on the “modest but important” quantity who believe they can risk their own lives, and the lives of other individuals, by driving below the influence.

AA president Edmund King said a variety of campaigns appeared to have had a optimistic effect over Christmas but issued a note of caution, saying the quantity of young drivers failing breath tests was nevertheless too high and police tactics varied significantly up and down the country.

“Even although there was a reduction in the quantity of beneath-25s testing good, the proportion of good tests (5.27 per cent) was larger than for the over-25s (3.39 per cent),” he said. “The North Wales force, which represents a population of 675,000 men and women, tested more than 18,000 drivers. In comparison, the South Wales force, which represents 1.2 million individuals, only tested 3,703.”

Road safety minister Stephen Hammond warned motorists that they ought to be in no doubt that if they get behind the wheel right after drinking they danger losing their licence, as properly as facing a fine and even a prison sentence.

He mentioned the Government is organizing to streamline enforcement and tighten the law so drink-drivers will have “nowhere to hide”, and that the figures show the police are “cracking down on the irresponsible minority who continue to ignore the law”.

Fall in Christmas drink-drivers - Confused.com