Drink-driving: 'All drivers should have the message by now'

Published on Thursday 16 July 2009 09:54

POLICE may be heartened that the first week of the annual summer crackdown on drink-driving has seen a 17 per cent reduction in the numbers caught. But the figures give no cause for celebration and must be considered a possible blip rather than a pattern of greater compliance with the law.

That 122 were caught in a single week shows there is still at least a minority who have little regard for the law and continue to be a danger to themselves and others. One-sixth of all those charged were involved in collisions, and we'll never know how many would have got away with it had they not been breathalysed as a result of being involved in an accident.

That's one of the problems with drink-driving: we do not know the extent of the problem. The conviction rate gives some kind of above the water indicator but who truly knows how big the iceberg is?

A recent survey conducted by the road safety charity Brake found that young motorists were twice as likely to think they can get away with drink-driving as older road users.

Yet a survey by the RAC published yesterday quite alarmingly reveals drinking and driving is more prevalent among those aged 45-64 than among 17-24-year-olds. Almost one-third in the older age group admitted to driving while over the limit compared with only a quarter of the latter.

But this flies in the face of local evidence from last year's festive drink-drive blitz which showed that in the Lothians area almost a third of the motorists arrested were 25 or under.

Such contrasting data must make it difficult for the police to identify their real targets, and for the government to direct its public safety campaigns. In truth, after decades of expensive, hard-hitting campaigns, all drivers should have understood the message by now. But clearly many have not. And it remains worrying that an increasing number of young motorists are not under the influence of drink, but drugs.

There can be no arguing with Alex Salmond and his SNP government that a review of the UK's 40-year-old drink-driving laws is long overdue. Many favour halving the current drink-drive limit, in line with much of Europe. It is worth a try as it would effectively mean even one drink was out of bounds.

But the worst drink-drivers appear to be a hardcore who never seem to care if they are over the limit before they drive. These people get behind the wheel in the full knowledge that they are not fit to drive and any tinkering with the limits is not going to alter their perspective.

The mother who was caught last week in Edinburgh in the early hours of the morning with a baby strapped in the back seat of her car while she was twice the legal limit is a prime example of what appear to be lost causes.