Drink Driving

On average 3,000 people are killed or seriously injured each year in drink drive collisions and nearly one in seven of all deaths on the road involve drivers who are over the legal limit.

The legal alcohol limit for driving is 80mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood but there is no failsafe guide to the amount of alcohol that a driver can safely consume. Any amount of alcohol affects driving ability. Your ability to judge speed and distance may be impaired, your reaction times may be slowed and your judgement of risk seriously affected.

You can’t calculate your alcohol limit - so don’t try

There is no guaranteed guide as to how much you can drink and stay under the limit. The amount and type of alcoholic drink and your weight, sex, age and metabolism will all play their part.
The quantity of alcohol in a half-pint of beer is approximately the same as in a pub measure of port/sherry or a small glass of wine. But:

• many beers and wines are stronger than average
• drinks poured at home are usually more generous than pub measures
• cocktails and alcopops are very strong; their high alcoholic content is often masked by the taste of fruit juice.

Any amount of alcohol will affect your judgement, starting with your judgement about whether you should have another drink!

At just twice the current legal limit you are at least 50 times more likely to be involved in a fatal collision.

The offence of 'causing death by dangerous driving whilst under the influence of drink or drugs' now carries a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment and a disqualification of at least 2 years.

If you want to know more about drink driving you can look at the Department of Transport’s Road Safety website from the list of websites.