Charity urges party-goers to stand up to ‘designated drivers' who drink

Charity urges Xmas party-goers to stand up to ‘designated drivers' who drink

Christmas party-goers urged to help save lives by standing up to ‘designated drivers' who drink, as survey shows we're still too timid

Road safety charity Brake and Direct Line are appealing to party-goers to help prevent Christmas tragedies by standing up to designated drivers who break their promise by drinking alcohol. This puts their passengers and other road users at risk.

Research released today by Brake and Direct Line, shows a huge shift in public attitudes towards drink driving over the past decade.

While the vast majority of drivers now subscribe to a zero tolerance approach to alcohol and driving, in line with Brake's advice, a minority continue to cause enormous risk by driving after drinking - and passengers are struggling to stand up to these drivers.

The survey of 1,000 drivers across the UK found:

• Two-thirds of drivers (68%) won't drive after having a drink, compared to less than half (49%) a decade ago. The remaining one-third (32%) admit driving after drinking some amount of alcohol, or the morning after having a lot to drink, in the past year;
• One in ten (10%) admit driving after drinking so much that they think they were certainly or potentially over the legal limit in the past year;
• Four in five (81%) never drive first thing in the morning after drinking a lot of alcohol, up from 72% a decade ago;

While more and more drivers are committing to zero tolerance, passengers are struggling to stand up to drink drivers. Only one-third (36%) said they would refuse to get in the car if their designated driver had been drinking. One in eight (12%) say they have potentially or definitely been a passenger with a driver who was over the limit in the past year.

In 2012, 280 people were killed and 1,210 suffered serious injuries in crashes caused by drivers over the drink drive limit. It's estimated a further 65 deaths are caused annually by drivers who have been drinking but are under the limit.

These deaths and injuries cause a huge amount of pain and suffering to those involved and the families left behind, many of whom are supported by Brake's support services for bereaved and injured road crash victims.

Brake is calling for the government to catch up with research and public attitudes by reducing the legal limit to 20mg alcohol per 100ml of blood - effectively zero tolerance.

This would send a clear message, in line with research, that driving after any amount of alcohol significantly increases your crash risk.

Evidence indicates lowering our limit would help reduce the casualties that continue to result from drink driving.