Eight-year high for drink-drive deaths

290 killed as campaigners call for ‘zero tolerance’

THE number of people killed in drink- drive accidents has reached an eight-year high, figures revealed yesterday.

An estimated 290 people died in crashes where a driver was over the limit in 2017, up a quarter from 230 in 2016.

Campaigners expressed alarm at the death toll – the highest since 2009.

And the RAC and AA warned the lack of ‘cops in cars’ and the dramatic fall in roadside breathalyser tests meant drivers increasingly believed they could get away with drink-driving.

The Department for Transport, which published the figures, insisted the rise was not ‘statistically significant’.

Numbers killed or injured in drink-drive crashes were actually down 4 per cent on the previous year at 8,660 people. However, safety charity Brake called for tougher drink- driving limits – mirroring action taken in Scotland.

The number of traffic officers in England and Wales has fallen by almost 30 per cent in ten years, from 3,766 in 2007 to 2,643 in 2017. And Home Office figures show roadside breath tests have fallen by almost a quarter in a decade to a record low of 463,000 in 2016, compared to 602,000 in 2006.

Hunter Abbott, a member of the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety and managing director of breathalyser firm AlcoSense, said: ‘ I believe this shows a clear correlation between cuts in police budgets and increased drink- drive deaths. Combined with the highest drink-drive limit in the developed world, it’s proved to be a lethal mixture.’

England and Wales now stand alone with the highest drinkdrive limits in Europe at 80mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood.

Scotland reduced its limit from 80mg to 50mg in 2014.

The RAC described the rise in drink- driving deaths as a ‘serious cause for alarm’.

Jack Cousens from AA said: ‘We need more cops in cars to deter and catch offenders long before they are added to road death statistics.’ Josh Harris from Brake said: ‘Brake is calling for the Government to implement an effective zero tolerance drink-drive limit.’

In all, 1,793 road deaths, drink-drive or otherwise, were reported in 2017 – almost a 40 per cent drop from 2,946 in 2007. A DfT spokesman said: ‘The Government is working with the industry to develop new roadside breath tests, meaning drink-drivers do not have the chance to sober up before being tested.’