New report on young people drinking and driving.

24 June 2014

While the past decade has seen the number of people killed or seriously injured in a crash involving drunk-drivers fall by more than half (55%), intoxicated motorists, particularly the young, are still a major hazard on Britain’s roads.

In 2012, 280 people were killed as a direct result of drink-driving crashes and drink-driving is a factor in approximately 1 in 6 of all road deaths. While 18% of all drivers or riders killed on the roads are over the alcohol limit, this rises to 23% for those aged 16-24.

To coincide with the England Game against Costa Rica the RAC Foundation has published  Get Me Home: socialising, drinking and safe travel for young adults which was compiled by Independent Social Research.

The report’s authors engaged with young people to take a fresh look at their car travel habits on social occasions where the consumption of alcohol is involved. The research was commissioned to inform the development of effective communications and interventions aimed at making car travel safer in such circumstances.

The report says passengers have a responsibility not to:

• distract the driver
• pressure the driver into taking more passengers in the car than there is room for
• travel without a seatbelt
• get into a car with a drunk-driver.

The report was jointly commissioned by the RAC Foundation and RoadSafe and compiled with the assistance of the IAM. It was financially supported by the brewer AB InBev.

Further details are here.