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Drink Driving At Its Worst In Spring
Fri, 15 Apr 2011

Spring is the worst time of the year for drink driving offences, new Government figures have revealed.

The Home Office statistics for England and Wales show that the number of drivers testing positive for drink, or refusing to take a breathalyser test, is at its highest between March and May period, and not at Christmas as most people think.

The December period has the fewest over-the-limit drivers despite having the highest number of breath tests carried out.

According to the Home Office figures for 2009, the number of drivers found over the legal alcohol limit or refusing to be breath tested in March that year was as high as 17 per cent. In April and May 2009 the figure was 16 per cent.

Nearly 190,000 breath tests were conducted in December 2009 – over four times the amount carried out in the months of March, April and May - yet only 5 per cent of drivers failed the test or refused to take it.

A separate survey by road safety charity Brake and insurance firm Direct Line found that over half of British motorists (53 per cent) believe there is a less than one-in-four chance of being caught drunk driving, while 31 per cent think they have a less than one in 10 chance of being caught.

"The number of breath tests being carried out is wholly inadequate in providing an effective deterrent and tackling the appalling number of casualties that continue to result from drink driving," said Julie Townsend, Brake's campaigns director.

"As well as rejecting proposals for a lower drink drive limit, the Government has rejected random breath testing, a policy that we know to be effective from international evidence."
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