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Annual Fall In Drink And Drug Drive Arrests In December
Tue, 26 Jan 2010

The number of drink-drive arrests made by police officers in England and Wales last month fell by 16.5 per cent, it has been revealed.

Officers carried out breathalyser tests on some 223,423 people during the month – 22 per cent more than the previous year – and found that 7,638 were driving over the limit.

There was a larger fall in the number of motorists arrested for drug driving during the month (36 per cent year-on-year), but nearly a fifth of drivers tested were found to have drugs in their system.

Chief Constable Giannasi, the Association of Chief Police Officers' lead on road safety, said police forces were "encouraged" by the drop in drink and drug-driving arrests in most areas, but added that it was "totally unacceptable" that some thousands of drivers were still breaking the law.

"More drivers than ever before were breath tested over the holiday period and despite all the messages that drinking and driving is dangerous and illegal, some people still do not get the point," he said.

"There were still 7,638 drivers on our roads posing a threat to themselves and others and that is totally unacceptable."

Road safety minister Paul Clark welcomed the figures, saying: "Successful government campaigns and police enforcement have made drink-driving unacceptable and reduced the number of people killed in drink-drive accidents by almost three quarters since 1979."

"These encouraging figures show that this vital message is continuing to get through and further cut the numbers of drivers who put others at risk by getting behind the wheel after drinking ."

However, Sarah Fatica, from road safety charity Brake, said Britain is still "lagging behind other world leaders" in terms of breathalyser tests, with less than 1 per cent of all UK drivers tested annually.

AA president Edmund King added that the government need to put more effort into tackling the problem of drug-driving .
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