Launch of drink-drive campaign

Kent County Council has launched its summer drinkdriving campaign to make people realise the danger of getting behind the wheel with alcohol in their system.

It comes as a new study has shown one in six of all road deaths involve alcohol.

Over the past three years there have been 654 crashes and 951 casualties as a result of a driver being impaired by alcohol on the county’s roads. Of these, 161 were seriously injured and 18 died.

The campaign, which is run by Kent Road Safety, will last throughout June

KCC road safety team leader Vicky Harvey said: “You don’t have to be drunk to be dangerous on the roads.

“Just one drink can increase the chances of having a crash, sometimes with tragic consequences for you, the victims involved and their families.

“Small amounts of alcohol will affect your ability to drive safely and it will affect your reaction times and ability to drive.

“The message is simple – if you’re driving, is having a drink worth it?”

Half of all of alcohol-related collisions took place at the weekend and a quarter of all collisions on a Saturday.

Three quarters of drink-drivers caught over that period were male, with the majority aged between 25 and 40.

Police will be carrying out road checks at all times of the day across Kent throughout the campaign.