Drink Driving

For many years the Government, road safety organisations and the Police have tried to get the message across that drinking and driving is simply not acceptable.

Driving after you have been drinking ruins lives.

• In 2004 (the latest year for which we have definite statistics), 2920 people were killed or seriously injured in drink related accidents in Britain. 
• That is one person every three hours.
  
  Source: Department for Transport, September 2005.

We all absorb alcohol at different rates depending on many factors, such as weight, stomach contents and metabolism.
Any amount of alcohol, even a small drink, will impair your body’s ability to function normally.

It will:

• reduce how you see things and how your brain processes information.
• cut down your reaction times and your ability to recognise hazards when driving.

Driving with too much alcohol can have a rapid and even more devastating effect on your driving. It reduces your ability to judge distance and speed; it effects the body’s coordination, reduces peripheral vision and gives you a sense of euphoria which means that you cannot recognise these things happening. It can even affect your ability to see and process certain colours, such as red.

In short, you are in charge of one ton of metal, moving at speed and you quite simply will not be up to the job of controlling it.

While absorbing alcohol is different for all of us, sobering up isn’t. Alcohol is broken down in the body by the liver, which can only handle the task at a certain rate.

The process takes hours rather than minutes and there is nothing you can do to speed it up. Coffee, fruit juice, carbonated drinks and showers will not help at all. For this reason it is possible that you can go out and have several pints in the evening and walk home, but when you get into your car the following morning, you will still be over the limit.

Even under those circumstances, if you get caught, the consequences are as severe as they are long lasting.

• You could be responsible for causing an accident in which someone is killed or seriously injured. It could be an innocent member of the public, a child or a passenger in your vehicle.
• Causing death by careless driving whilst under the influence of drink or drugs will result in a maximum 10 year jail sentence and a minimum 2 year driving ban.
• If you kill or seriously injure a passenger in your car, it could be your partner, or your child. Imagine living with the knowledge that you are responsible for that happening.
• You could have an accident and seriously injure yourself.
• You could end up paralysed, or off work for months, causing serious financial hardship to your family.
• You WILL get caught by the Police. The Police have a legal power to breathalyse you after an accident or if they suspect by the manner of your driving that you have been drinking.
• If the Police stop you for any other reason, even a broken back light, and suspect you have had a drink, you will be asked to take a breath test.
• Thousands of people get breathalysed every week.
• Driving or attempting to drive whilst above the legal limit will result in a maximum 6 month jail sentence and a fine of £5,000 plus at least a 12 month disqualification.
• If you think you can get away with it by declining to provide a breath specimen, think again - failing or refusing to provide a breath test carries identical penalties to being over the limit.
• And if you think you can leave the scene of an accident and claim you had a drink after the accident happened, think again. The Police now regularly use forensic toxicologists to establish the facts in cases like these. If you try to cover up what happened, or lie during the investigation or in Court, then you could face additional charges for perverting the course of Justice or Perjury, both of which carry lengthy prison sentences.
• Other consequences of a drink drive conviction include a criminal record, possible loss of livelihood, increased insurance costs, extreme difficulty in hiring a car for around 10 years and legal expenses.
• You will get a criminal record if convicted. You will be off the road for at least a year. Your insurance will go through the roof. You could lose your job. Under certain circumstances, your licence won’t be returned at the end of your ban until you have undergone a stringent medical examination before you are allowed back behind the wheel again.

Remember all these things can happen as a result of “just a quick drink”

• Drink driving can ruins lives.
• Often other peoples.
• If you do it, definitely yours.

People often say “I am fine to drive after a pint” - the truth is, YOU’RE NOT. The legal limit for driving in this country is 80mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood, which is higher than many other countries.  There is no benchmark as to how much you can drink and remain under the legal limit as alcohol affects each of us differently.