Every Christmas is the same: Police and drink-drive awareness groups go into overdrive because our collective alcohol consumption does.
Drink-driving doesn't go up because we all of a sudden drop our morals for Christmas; rather, it's because we drop our defences - the morning after is a real issue.
Drink-drive related deaths have fallen by more then 75 percent since 1980 according to drinkaware.co.uk. Yet recent research by road safety charity Brake has found that four in ten drivers admit getting behind the wheel the morning after a heavy drinking session - a massive 30 percent increase compared to 2003.
It is the festive party season, so now is a good time to go back over some drink-drive facts and dispel some myths.
Facts:
Legal limit: 80mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood. (See "Common misconceptions" below)
The law: drink-driving carries an instant driving ban of at least 12 months, possible imprisonment and a fine up to £5,000.
Units: half a pint of beer or lager with around 3.5% ABV (alcohol by volume) is one unit. However, many lagers are 5% ABV and above, making half a pint 1.5 units and, if follows, a full pint three. A 175ml glass of red or white wine is around two units, and a pub measure of spirits is one unit.
Some common misconceptions:
Myth: Two pints is OK.
Fact: Not the case. How much alcohol a person can take while staying under the legal limit varies dramatically depending on weight, gender, age, metabolism, food and even stress. This is why it's impossible to name a number of units that it's 'safe' to drink and stay under the limit.
Myth: I'm OK the following morning if I've had some sleep.
Fact: Nothing can speed up the process of getting rid of alcohol - so it's not OK to sleep for a couple of hours after an all night bender, and then drive home. According to healthcare organisation Bupa, the liver cleanses blood of alcohol at a rate of around one unit per hour, and nothing can speed that up, including food. So, if you drink three pints of lager or a bottle of wine (around nine units) it will take nine hours for the alcohol to fully disperse.
Myth: One pint doesn't affect my driving.
Fact: It does. According to the Institute of Alcohol Studies (IAS), accident risk increases after one drink among young drivers, doubling after two drinks and increasing tenfold after five. Alcohol immediately reduces reaction time (by up to 30 percent), affects the ability to multi-task and reduces the ability to see distant objects. It also creates over-confidence, leading to increased risk taking.
Myth: I'm safe if I'm under the limit.
Fact: The best way to be safe is to not drink at all. On average there are 200-300 road deaths each year 'associated with blood alcohol levels between 10-80mg', says the IAS. In 1998 the Department for Transport declared that drinking by drivers with between 50-80mg of blood alcohol was 'a significant but largely hidden cause of accidents'. It's unlikely that has changed.
Myth: I'm a responsible person - I can't be a drink-driver.
Fact: It's surprising how easy it is to 'sleepwalk' into a drink-driving conviction by not making sure you're under the limit the morning after. Statistics from the IAS show that while some groups are definitely higher risk, anyone can get caught.
The stats:
- Nine out of ten convicted drink-drivers are male.
- There are some higher risk groups, but they inhabit a wide spectrum on the socio-economic scale: the unemployed or manual workers who drink in pubs socially a lot are high risk, but so are older men in management or executive office positions.
- Young drivers are at the highest risk of offending; 27 is seen as the 'peak age' for risk.
- Men aged 20-24 cause a particularly high number of drink-drive related accidents.
- Around half of convicted drivers are caught at almost twice the limit (150mg).
- Just under one in ten re-offend within ten years.
- Just over half of convicted drink-drivers are under 33.
- Four in ten drink-drivers have convictions for other types of offences.
No comments:
Post a Comment