3rd January 1997

Drink drive cases up over Christmas
IAS Comment

The 18 per cent increase in the number of motorists caught drinking and driving over the Christmas and New Year period, and the 4 per cent increase in the number of alcohol related road accidents, provides further evidence that the anti-drink drive campaign is floundering and may be going into reverse. The decline in convictions for drinking and driving and in alcohol-related road casualties came to a halt in 1994 and there was an increase in convictions and casualties in 1995. The figures for 1996 are not yet available but those for the Christmas period are not encouraging.

The IAS fully supports the call by the the chief police officers for 'unfettered discretion' to breath test drivers and for a lower legal limit. These measures are now clearly necessary to reinforce the anti-drink drive campaign and to continue progress in reducing casualties. They are also clearly supported by the great majority of the public.

Equally, however, the IAS suggests that the anti-drink drive campaign may now be being undermined by Government policy in other areas, most obviously the policy of the last few budgets of reduced alcohol taxation and cheaper alcohol.