New app can help drivers avoid ‘morning after’ drink driving

A new app which enables people to calculate roughly when the alcohol they have drunk will have passed through their body, has been launched as part of the ‘Morning After’ drink drive campaign.

The app, called the ‘Morning After Calculator’, presents a wide range of alcoholic drinks under the headings ‘beer & lager’, ‘cider’, ‘wine & champagne’, ‘spirits & alcopops’ and ‘cocktails’.

The user enters the drinks he or she is consuming (or has consumed) and the app calculates roughly when the alcohol will have passed through their body. It allows one hour for each unit of alcohol, plus an additional hour for the alcohol to enter the bloodstream, and then rounds up the calculation to the nearest half hour.

The app bases its calculation from the time the user stops drinking, not when they start drinking. While accepting this is perhaps over-cautious, the Morning After team says it would “rather be safe than sorry”.

The ‘hours before driving’ calculation is not based on any drink drive limit – it is the length of time when the alcohol in the drinks the person has consumed is likely to have passed through their body.

Sally Bartrum, Morning After project manager, said: “Let’s make one thing absolutely clear – this app is not intended to help people work out how much they can drink on a night out before driving home.

“If you are drinking any amount of alcohol on a night out – even one drink – you should leave the car at home and make alternative arrangements.

“And the calculator won’t help you if you are arrested for drink driving.

“What it will do is enable you to calculate roughly when it will be safe for you to drive the morning after drinking alcohol. And it can help you calculate when to stop drinking alcohol if you have to drive the following morning.”

The app is currently running on the Morning After campaign website and available from the Google play store, and will soon be available from the iTunes store.

Road safety teams are invited to participate in the 2015 Morning After campaign. Click here for more details or contact Sally Bartrum on 01379 650112.