Drinking and Driving

The Christmas figures are through and once again far too many drivers think they can get away with drinking and driving. During the pre Christmas period 200 drivers per day failed the breathalyser test. That is 6613 throughout England and Wales.

Compared to 2009 the numbers are actually down. There were 170,000 tested this year, which is down from 223,000 the previous year. The cold weather played its part as more people stayed in leading up to the festive period. I would also suggest with the cut backs perhaps there were fewer police allocated to the seasonal drink-drive campaign.

I read some years ago, there is a hardcore 5% of the driving population who will drink and drive no matter what risks there are to their driving license; let alone risks to other road users. Perhaps it is time to review the penalties, which obviously don’t go far enough to protect us from these irresponsible drivers. I know what I would do, but I am rather hard-line when it comes to punishing offenders.