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Avoid drink driving this Christmas

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In Advice and Tips

Avoid drink driving this Christmas

 

If you’re old enough to drive you’ll have got used to being bombarded with anti-drink driving campaigns over the years. Every Christmas a series of adverts is aired in which you’re told that if you get caught drink driving your world will fall apart. Don’t get caught and the consequences could be much worse; there are 240 deaths each year through drink driving.

Despite this high-profile campaigning, each year around 100,000 drivers lose their licence because they’ve been caught driving over the limit. The result is an instant driving ban for at least 12 months – but that’s just the start of it. So this Christmas – and indeed all year round – don’t take any chances if you’re driving, because it’s just not worth it.

Many drivers are caught out the morning after. Some have been caught out by just moving their car while others have lost their licence by sleeping in their car while drunk.

It’s easy to think that a few hours’ sleep will make all that alcohol in your system disappear, but whether you’re asleep or awake your body can process things only so fast. Just how quickly depends on whether you’re male or female, your weight, how much booze you’ve had, how much and what you’ve eaten – and more besides.

The penalties

If you’re caught driving or attempting to drive, while affected by drink, or with excess drink in your system, you’ll be banned from driving for at least 12 months. Get caught twice within 10 years and that minimum ban becomes three years.

As if that’s not enough you can also be jailed for six months, fined up to £5,000 – or even both if you’ve really been stupid. And to cap things off you’ll also be saddled with 3-11 points on your licence. Kill someone due to drink driving and you face ten years behind bars and an unlimited fine.

If you reckon you can dodge the law by refusing to give a breath sample, think again. Unless there’s medical proof that you can’t provide a sample, refuse to do so and the penalties are the same as if you fail a breath test. But to punish you further for being unhelpful you can get an extra six months on your driving ban, which is why co-operating is your best bet.

The limits

The drink drive limit in England and Wales is 80mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood, or 35 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath. In Scotland it’s much lower at just 50mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood or 22 micrograms of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath, which is in line with most European countries. If you’re struggling to comprehend what that actually means, you’re not alone.

Alcohol affects us all differently so there are no set rules as to what you can drink before driving, to stay within the legal limit. As a rule of thumb, if you drink a pint of strong lager it’ll be up to three hours before you should get behind the wheel; a couple of large glasses of wine and you might need to leave it for as much as eight hours.

Putting it to the test

If the police pull you over because they suspect you’ve had a skinful, the start of your nightmare will be them asking you to blow into a breathalyser. When this flags up that you’re over the limit, things will start to get a lot more uncomfortable. Don’t assume you can beat their breathalyser either; these are some common myths:

  • Strong coffee sobers you up: Alcohol needs time to dissipate and you can’t speed things up. Also, the coffee’s caffeine can’t keep you alert or restore your judgment.
  • Bigger people handle their alcohol better: Your size can affect the rate of alcohol absorption, but your metabolism, when you last ate and how much rest you’ve had matter too.
  • Eat a mint: Your breath will smell nice, but a breathalyser measures the alcohol in the air in your lungs, so this one’s a non-starter.
  • Drink lots of water: As above; it won’t affect the level of alcohol in the air in your lungs.

You’ll be arrested and taken to a police station where you’ll have to provide an evidential specimen of either breath, blood or urine. This will be taken using a precisely calibrated machine that’ll provide the evidence for you to be sentenced – once again, don’t think you’ll be able to beat it.

Drink survival guide

With the police packing such an armoury, how can you make sure you’re not caught out this Christmas? The obvious way is to stay off the booze altogether, or to drink a minimal amount before getting behind the wheel. Use a taxi, elect a designated driver within your group or ask someone to drive you – fail to do one of these things and you’ll feel the impact potentially for years.

The key thing is not to try to calculate if you’ve consumed enough to put you over the limit; it’s too easy to get it wrong. You could invest in a personal breathalyser, some of which are very good. The new Alcosense Pro  is claimed to be as accurate as the police breathalysers; its £129 cost may seem high, but you won’t think that if you lose your licence.

And there’s more…

If you want to know more about anything covered here, check out some of the online resources that’ll guide you through drink driving law, breathalysers, and drug driving law too – the penalties for drug driving are the same as for drink driving. We’d suggest you check out:

If there’s one key thing to remember this Christmas it’s this: being legal doesn’t mean you’re safe, and being safe doesn’t mean you’re legal, unless you stay off the booze altogether.

Richard Dredge

December 2015