In this latest opinion piece, Ean Lewin, managing director of D.Tec International, says without policy makers accepting reality and making some difficult and perhaps controversial decisions, the scale of the drug driving problem will not fade.
Operation Limit is a six-week long campaign, which has been extended this year to coincide with the World Cup and Christmas season. It started on November 21st and will conclude at the end of January.
Limit is a nationwide crackdown on drink and drug driving which sees all 43 UK Police Forces increase efforts to catch drink and drug drivers.
We keep hearing about rising drink and drug driving prosecutions. So, amidst this latest crackdown – we ask ourselves how bad is the problem?
The answer is that the initiative could not be timelier as statistics recently released by the Ministry of Justice (MOJ) show how significant drink and drug driving has become on our roads, particularly drug driving. It is also not just about the festive period, this is an all-year-round problem.
Numbers
Latest numbers suggest that 206 drug and drink driving offences are committed every day in England and Wales – a total of 75,159 offences. Further, they highlight that convictions for drug driving have more than trebled over the past five years from 7,683 in 2017, to 27,962 by the end of 2021.
There has also been a 13% growth in drink driving cases in the past year, with 33,742 motorists appearing in court in 2021.
It is our expectation (and that of many other senior authorities on this subject) that statistics for 2022, which will be made available midway through next year, will show that drug driving is now more prevalent in society than drink driving.
As for Operation Limit, the success of the overall campaign will not be visible until after the initiative has ended. However, during the first three weeks, Merseyside Police alone arrested 143 for drug driving and 57 for drink driving – an average of 13 arrests per day and almost three times as many for drug driving.
Shift change
In our role working with all 43 police forces, we get to see the enthusiasm of the front line to solve this problem – enthusiasm which is growing as quickly as the problem itself.
That said, enthusiasm alone isn’t enough. I have spent 26 years tirelessly working to improve safety on our roads and whilst I applaud this nationwide effort and pockets of all-year-round focus within some parts of the UK, without policy makers in Whitehall and Westminster accepting reality and making some difficult and perhaps controversial decisions, the scale of the problem (which is frankly already out of control), will not fade.
Well said Ean. Enthusiasm is important but no substitute for good education, enforcement resources (human and technical), laws, appropriate penalties, court procedures, etc etc.
Better monitoring is also needed – police and court data is so dependent on resource inputs.
David Davies
+8