Data points to growing ‘morning after’ drink drive problem

Data produced by a company that markets personal breathalysers shows that while the number of drink drive collisions is falling, the proportion of ‘morning after’ drink drive collisions has reached an all time high.

According to AlcoSense Breathalysers, the proportion of morning after drink drive collisions has risen by around 60% in the past decade. 18.2% of all collisions caused by drink driving in 2010 occurred between 5am and 1pm, compared with 11.4% in 2000 – and 6.9% in 1990.

AlcoSense highlights a correlation between relaxed licensing laws, allowing pubs to stay open for longer, and the number of morning after drink drive collisions. According to AlcoSense, the number of morning after drink drive crashes stabilised in the early 2000s, at around 11% of all drink drive crashes. However, after new licensing laws were introduced this figure jumped to 13.5% in 2003 – the year the law took effect. And in the first full of the new law it rose again, to 15.2%.

In contrast, the number of drink drive collisions occurring at night (between 7pm and 4am) has decreased from 58% to 47.5% since 1990.

Hunter Abbott, AlcoSense MD, said: “THINK! has greatly educated the public about the risks of drink driving and it is now perceived as unacceptable. People still believe, however, that a few hours sleep will get rid of all of the alcohol in their system, but it is surprisingly easy to still be over the limit the ‘morning after’.

“If, for example, you drank four pints of medium strong beer or 4 large glasses of wine between 9pm and midnight, it could take as long as 14.8 hours for the alcohol to leave your system. Therefore you could easily still be over the limit at 11am the following day.”

For more information contact Kevin Monks on 01628 778885.