Drivers keen to avoid ‘morning after’ drink driving

A drink drive website that provides information about how long it takes for alcohol to pass through the body received more than 23,000 visits during December.

The ‘morning after’ campaign website provides information to help people avoid driving while still over the drink drive limit the morning after drinking alcohol.

The website explains that it takes a lot longer than most people think for alcohol to pass through the body. On average it takes around one hour per unit of alcohol, though this can vary depending on a number of factors.

The website is part of a wider ‘morning after’ drink drive campaign which is available for road safety teams to buy into.

The website received 23,638 visits in the period 1 December 2013 – 1 January 2014, up 4% on the corresponding period 12 months ago.

Unsurprisingly, the highest number of visits (2,770) was recorded on Wednesday 1 January, followed by Saturday 21 December (1,244).

By far the largest proportion of the 96,000+ page views were to the ‘morning after calculator’ which gives information about the time it talks for the alcohol in specific drinks to pass through the body. Almost 22,000 page views (22% of the total) were to this page on the site.

Beyond this, “click throughs” to obtain information about specific drinks were fairly evenly spread between ‘wine’ (11,001), ‘bottles’ (10,869), ‘spirits’ (9,838) and ‘pints’ (8,974).

In a separate but related news release, the AA Driving School warned that “millions of drivers” risked being over the drink-drive limit for much of New Year’s Day.

Based on a poll of more than 21,500 drivers, the AA calculated that around 7.5million drivers may have drunk at least 10 units of alcohol by 2am on New Year’s Eve, meaning they risked still being over the limit at midday on New Year’s Day.

The AA also calculated that 2% of drivers expected to drink in excess of 20 units, putting them at risk of potentially drink driving as late as 10pm on New Year’s Day.

Sally Bartrum, from the morning after campaign, said: “The number of people visiting our site and using the morning after calculator suggests that many drivers are anxious to avoid driving while over the limit the morning after drinking.

“We are very pleased that our campaign and website are providing information which will hopefully help drivers avoid a drink drive conviction, or even worse cause a crash or casualties while unwittingly over the limit.” 

For more information about the morning after campaign contact Sally Bartrum on 01379 650112.