Office Christmas Party: 1/4 of motorists will drive home after drinking
Thursday, December 13, 2018
Friday (14th) will be the biggest day for work Christmas parties this year, according to a new poll.
But a quarter of motorists (24%) say they will drive home even though they’ve had a few drinks - if they feel ‘sure’ they are under the drink drive limit.
One in seven (14%) would drive if they felt ‘close to the limit but just about OK’, says the research by AlcoSense Breathalysers.
And 7% would drive despite thinking they might be ‘at the limit or just over’.
The most popular excuses are ‘I only have a short distance to drive’ (48%), ‘I’ll probably get away with it’ (43%) and ‘I feel sober enough’ (42%).
“At the current English drink drive limit, you are 13 times more likely to be in a fatal crash,” says Hunter Abbott, MD of AlcoSense and a member of the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety.
“Even at the Scottish limit, which is lower than England and Wales, you are 5 times more likely.
“The message is clear. If you’re planning to have a festive drink, leave the car keys behind”.
The ‘next day’ effect is also still not understood. A quarter of motorists said they would drive at 7am after Christmas party drinks, despite the risk of residual alcohol impairing their ability to drive.
Almost 20% of drink drive convictions are the morning after the night before, and a third of all breath tests after an accident are conducted between 7am and 1pm.
When drivers were asked how much alcohol they planned to consume between 15 December and New Year’s Eve, nearly a third (30%) said between 20 and 40 drinks.
A quarter (26%) estimated 11-20 drinks.
But 3% of motorists plan to binge on over 100 alcoholic beverages between now and the New Year. With 38 million licensed vehicles on the roads, that’s around one million drivers.
