Drink Driving in the UK
The Governments Drink Drive casualty figures are out and they make far from good reading.
Drink Driving statistics are slow to become available, so the most recent ones are for 2016. (I wonder if good news would be any quicker?)
Government Drink Driving Report
The figures show that 9040 were killed as a result of drink driving, which is a 7% rise from 2015. The government is reporting this as no significant change, however, it does show an upward trend year on year for the third year running.
This begs the question…
Why are more people choosing to drink drive causing this increase in casualties and fatalities?
I would hazard a well-educated guess that it is the lack of police presence on the road that prompts some people to drink and then choose to drive with the perception they won’t get caught.
This lack of specific Government funding for policing the roads results in a less traffic police presence, making the roads more dangerous.
The Guardian recently published an interesting piece discussing this worrying rise in drink driving…
Related post from the Guardian
D.Tec work with every police force in the country and have met many specialist Roads Policing Officers whilst training to help them catch Drug Drivers. It is a fact that Traffic Officers are not there to frustrate the masses of drivers who are safely making progress on the roads, but they are definitely out there to catch and deter those drivers who seriously endanger the rest of us.
How does this affect you, and your staff or work colleagues?
The Department for Transports statistics shows that around 50% of “RTC Fatalities with alcohol in their systems” involved the drunk driver being the one fatally injured.
Do you know if you yourself, or indeed how many of your staff and drivers are truly fit to drive the next day, having drunk alcohol the evening before?”
You can only guess, but the figures in this Government report show these numbers are increasing.
D.Tec has a simple solution.
Our Drager police specification breathalysers can screen someone in several seconds, by simply holding it up close to the employee’s mouth and asking them to state their name. The breathalyser will show if any alcohol is present in their breath within seconds. If there is no alcohol, the employee is fine to head to their job, delayed by no more than 10 seconds and at zero cost and with no disruption to the company.
However, if there is any alcohol present, they can be taken aside for a more thorough ‘blow through the tube’ screen and 20 minutes later there will be legally defensible confirmation. This might take 20 minutes, and a cost of 50p, but it could save you and your company many thousands of pounds in vehicle damage, employee injury, member of the public put at risk, or as these Government figures show, serious injury or even death.
Take a look at our £995.00 drink and drug screening starter pack, which contains everything you need.
We are also happy to answer any questions you have and offer our expert advice.
You can email us shop@dtecinternational.com or call us 0800371898