Roadside breath tests to rise in June

Motorists are being issued with a drink-drive warning as police gear up for their annual Summer crackdown.

The number of roadside breath tests carried out in June is 50% higher than any other month apart from December. 

Police breathalysed 36,041 drivers in England and Wales in June 2017 (the latest year for which figures are available).  This compares with a monthly average of 23,840 across the rest of the year, excluding the Christmas period.

Nearly one in ten motorists (3,275) tested positive in the June crackdown and were arrested.

Almost a fifth (17.8%) of drink drive convictions are ‘morning after’.  And a third of all breath tests after an accident are conducted in the morning (between 7am and 1pm). 

Drivers in Merseyside were the most likely to be stopped in June, with 3,010 breathalysed – followed by Hampshire (2,532) and Thames Valley (2,265).

Wales was also a hotspot with 2,178 breath tests in South Wales and 1,952 in North Wales.

“The police always focus on June as, statistically, it’s a drink drive hotspot,” comments Hunter Abbott, Managing Director of breathalyser firm AlcoSense Laboratories.

“With warmer weather, sporting events and barbeques, June is a month when motorists are more likely to unintentionally drink drive the morning after socialising - posing a risk to themselves and other road users.”

The number of people killed in road accidents where the driver was over the drink drive limit has risen 45% in two years.  

Figures released by the Department for Transport in February suggested there were 290 such deaths in 2017, compared with 200 in 2015.

-ends- 

30 May 2019

Sources: 

Home Office - Police powers and procedures, England and Wales, year ending 31 March 2018

Department for Transport (February 2019):  Reported road casualties in Great Britain: Provisional estimates involving illegal alcohol levels