Motorists want tougher sentences to tackle drink-driving – survey

Tougher sentences are the most popular solution among motorists to tackle drink-driving, a survey suggests.

Drivers polled for the RAC were asked to choose three out of eight options for curbing drink-driving, which contributed to the deaths of an estimated 300 people on roads in 2022.

Harsher punishments were selected by nearly two in five (38%) drivers questioned.

Reducing the legal alcohol limit to zero was the second most popular option (34%), followed by giving the police new powers to immediately disqualify drink-drivers at the roadside (33%).

Bans

Currently, only courts can impose driving bans, meaning after a drink-driver is caught they can continue to drive until their court appearance.

Motorists face a minimum disqualification period of 12 months if they are convicted of drink-driving.

RAC road safety spokesman Rod Dennis said: “It’s clear motorists want to see something done differently to tackle the scourge of drink-driving, which is still responsible for the loss of far too many lives every year.

“Shockingly, Government data shows we’re back to a similar rate of fatalities caused by people drinking and driving as we were in the late 1980s, and that a significant number of drink-drive offences are committed by reoffenders.

“We hope the issue of drink-driving will be addressed in the Government’s soon-to-be-published road safety strategy, as clamping down on it in the right way could save hundreds of lives every year.”

Damaging impact

Chief Constable Jo Shiner, the National Police Chiefs’ Council lead for roads policing, said: “We see the damaging impact of drink and drug driving all too often, and every fatality or serious injury which happens as a consequence of this is completely avoidable.”

Official figures obtained by the PA news agency in September showed 372 people had been caught drink-driving at least four times.

The drink-drive limit in England, Wales and Northern Ireland is 80mg of alcohol in 100ml of blood.

Nowhere else in Europe has a limit above 50mg/100ml.

The Scottish Government reduced its limit to that level in 2014.

Zero-alcohol drinks

A recently launched campaign by the Government’s road safety organisation Think! urges young drivers to stick to zero-alcohol drinks before getting behind the wheel over the festive period.

A Department for Transport spokesperson said: “This Government takes road safety very seriously and there are already strict penalties in place for those who are caught drink or drug driving.

“We are committed to reducing the number of those killed and injured on our roads, which is why we will deliver a new Road Safety Strategy – the first in over a decade.”

– The survey of 2,691 drivers was conducted by research company Online95.