Drink Driving Deaths Rise
Everyone knows that drink driving is a serious issue and can result in accidents or even deaths which has been proven. The police are always trying to stomp down on drink driving with the conviction if caught being much more serious than it used to previously, and rightly so according to recent data. Last year it was found that fatalities that included alcohol raised by a sharp 25% on last year according to provisional data. This is serious cause for concern but what more can police do to stop it? The penalties are already serious in themselves yet people continue to get behind the wheel after having a few to many pints.
The department for transport has revealed that an estimated 290 people were killed in drink driving accidents during 2012 within the UK, the figure back in 2011 was 230 which is considerably lower than last year’s figure. 2011 shaped up to be a good year in terms of fatalities in road incidents involving alcohol with the lowest amount of deaths since records began in 1979, naturally many people were expecting the following year to keep with the trends as it possibly had a correlation with stamping down in terms of law with a more serious punishment, unfortunately as we can see it didn’t quite happen that way.
If you are not over the limit it doesn’t mean that you are safe, 32% of the 290 people killed in drink driving incidents where not necessarily over the drink driving limit and fell just short of the illegal figure of 35 micrograms of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breathe. There are so many factors that affect your micrograms per breathe, it’s never possible to tell how many drinks you can have before driving as the effect of alcohol depend on your weight, age, sex and metabolism as well as the type and amount of alcohol, what you’ve eaten recently and your stress levels at the time.
Accidents involving drink driving is also a shocking figure however it is actually down on 2011’s figure with only 6,680 incidents in 2012 and 6,690 in 2011, some good news I guess. Also serious injury accidents were also down from 2011 so it is showing some improvements in areas. In the 1970s and 1980s drink driving used to be extremely high in fatalities partially because people thought it was okay and where not aware of the pitfall as much as we are now, 2012 is a decrease on the 1970s and 1980s but that’s not something to necessarily celebrate.
If you are caught drink driving the minimum sentence you can be convicted for is at least twelve months disqualification and the misconception that people think the court has a discretion to allow you to keep your driving licence if you explain how difficult it will be to lose it, that’s wrong you WILL lose your licence for twelve months. You can also face a fine of up to £5,000 and if it’s bad six months imprisonment.