With England playing in the EURO 2024 final on Sunday night, football fans are being warned not to drive on Monday morning if they’ve been celebrating a win (or drowning their sorrows).
Data shows that drinks sales in licensed premises were up 6% during the week to 29 June, following a 9% surge the previous week.
Sales peaked during England’s last group stage game on 25 June, with 71% more alcohol drunk compared with the same day in 2023. Consumption is expected to be even higher on semi-final day, with ‘session’ drinks such as beer and cider showing the highest growth.
Hunter Abbott, MD of personal breathalyser firm AlcoSense, said: “If you drink four pints of average strength beer (4% ABV) up until closing time, you won’t be clear of alcohol until about 11am.
“For stronger beers, it takes even longer.
“Just a small amount of alcohol in your system slows your reaction time, inhibits judgement and reduces both concentration and co-ordination – increasing the likelihood of an accident.”
In a poll conducted by AlcoSense, over a third (36%) said their ability to drive is only impaired if they are actually over the legal drink drive limit.
But a driver is 13 times more likely to be involved in a fatal crash at the English limit, research shows.
Even with 10mg per 100mL of alcohol in your blood (one eighth of the limit in England and Wales) it is 37% more likely than when completely sober.
Hunter added: “Please don’t drive your kids to school or commute to work on Thursday morning if you’ve consumed alcohol watching the game, or use a personal breathalyser to check you’re clear.”
Government figures show that during 2021, there were 740 reported drink-drive collisions during the ‘morning after’ period of 5am to 1pm. This represents 16% of all drink drive collisions that year.
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