(DFT) Government steps up attack on drink drive menace in Devon and Cornwall

20 July 2007

More than half of all drink-drive casualties occur over the weekend

A new £3 million anti-drink drive campaign, launched today by Transport Secretary Ruth Kelly, takes a pioneering approach to educating against drink-driving. Responding to concerns that young men are more likely to be involved in a drink-drive accident than any other age group, the new THINK! campaign has been developed to speak directly to them and on their terms. It comes as worrying statistics prove that weekends are the most likely time for someone to be killed or injured by a drink-driver.

In 2005, a total of 339 people were killed or injured in drink-drive related accidents in the Devon and Cornwall Police area in 2005 compared to 255 in 2004 and 304 in 2003.

 Georgina Martin, Devon County Council Road Safety Officer, said: "There still seems to be a popular misconception that drinking and driving is a problem that was sorted out in the 1980s through a combination of breathalisers, stiffer penalties and hard hitting media campaigns. For a hard core of drivers, drinking and driving has never gone away.

"Equally worrying is that there is increasing evidence that some of the younger generations of drivers don't regard drink driving as being as anti-social as older drivers. It remains one of the worst of society's offences and none of us should be complacent about the return of the bad old days."

For more info visit: http://www.thinkroadsafety.gov.uk