Drink-driving

We drink alcohol to celebrate events, when socialising with friends or as a wind-down after work. There’s nothing wrong with this, as long as you don’t mix drinking with driving.
 
Alcohol has a huge affect on our brain and can alter the way we think and make driving decisions, such as braking, steering or changing lanes.
 
On average 3,000 people are killed or seriously injured each year in drink-drive collisions, that’s one in six of all road deaths involving drivers who are over the legal alcohol limit. Many of the road victims are innocent.
 
Driving at twice the legal alcohol limit means you are at least 50 times more likely to cause a road crash than a driver who hasn’t been drinking. 
 
It takes approximately one hour for one unit of alcohol to clear your system.
 
The legal alcohol limit
The legal alcohol limit for drivers in the UK is:
  • 80 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood, or
  • 35 micrograms of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath, or
  • 107 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of urine
 
However, there is no way of knowing how much a person can drink and still drive safely as alcohol affects everyone differently, depending on:
  • Gender
  • Age
  • Metabolism
  • Stress level
  • Food consumption
  • Alcohol consumption
 
In North Yorkshire, over 15,000 breath tests are carried out annually. If you drink and drive and are over the legal alcohol limit you are going to be caught.
 
The best advice if you are planning on having a drink is to leave the car keys at home.