News

The RAC have released their annual motoring report, which has some interesting news on drink driving and once again underlines how poorly informed the public are about drink driving laws and that many people have little insight into their own behaviour.

The key takeaways are that the majority of the public (68%) thinks more should be done to tackle drink driving. When told that drink driving deaths are at their highest level since 2009, a further 48% changed their mind and said more should be done. It’s worth saying that drink driving deaths in the latest data are around a third lower than in 2009 – there were 380 deaths in 2009 versus 260 in 2023, the most recent year with data. 2023 is also not the highest level since 2009 as the RAC claim since 2023 saw 14% fewer drink driving fatalities versus 2022. According to the official data alcohol was a factor in 4% of reported traffic collisions in 2023, which is down 5% on the previous year and down 23% since 2013.

The RAC asked about one intervention to cut drink driving rates, alcohol interlock devices. These require drivers to provide a specimen of breath into the device before they can start their vehicle. 82% of respondents supported the introduction of these devices.

For us, the most telling statistics were the self-reported drink driving figures versus those reported by passengers. 7% of drivers say they have driven over the limit following a night out and 5% say they were over the limit the following morning. However, 16% of passengers say they have been driven by a driver who was over the limit – that figure rises to 40% among under-25s!

That suggests to us something we’ve long suspected, that people are extremely bad judges of the effects alcohol has on them. We would suggest that driver training and the driving test include information and questions about how quickly alcohol can affect you. It’s important to note that you might feel and appear absolutely fine to drive yet still be over the drink driving limit. In one case, we represented a man with a breath-alcohol level of 175µg per 100ml of breath (the limit is 35µg). The police themselves gave evidence that he appeared to be completely sober, and they were only testing him due to a strong smell of alcohol! In fact, the police even went to the extent of testing their machine believing it was faulty when they saw the result. That should tell us that even people who are extremely used to dealing with drunk drivers may not be able to spot the signs. So, it is really important people are taught to recognise the signs in themselves and that they understand any alcohol may impair their driving ability.

During a BBC show during which our Nick Diable discussed drink driving, callers to the show spoke of allowing an hour per unit of alcohol consumed before driving. They think in these terms because of government information put out over the years; however, it does not reflect the reality of alcohol. A perfectly normal person might eliminate alcohol at between 3µg and 13µg per alcohol. That means that two normal people at either end of the spectrum will take vastly different amounts of time to eliminate alcohol. If both begin at 100µg in 100ml of breath (not a difficult level to achieve), then the person at the lower end will take over 33 hours to get back to zero while a person at the top end will take less than 8 hours to return to zero alcohol in their breath!

The most cost-effective solution to this is for drivers to buy a reliable breath test device and use it before driving if they have consumed alcohol since they last took a breath-alcohol reading. Home breath test kits aren’t 100% reliable, but they are better than guessing and our experts tell us that there’s no reason a properly maintained home test kit won’t give you a good indication if you are unsafe to drive.

As always, if you have been caught drink driving then you can contact us on 020 8242 4440 for independent and expert legal advice.