Be merry by all means but don’t drink and drive

Eat, drink and be merry — but whatever you do, don’t get behind the wheel of a car this Christmas, because the consequences could be dire or even fatal. As Hampshire police lunch Operation Holly, their annual drive to get alcohol or drugimpaired drivers off the road, it is a sad fact that their efforts are as vital as ever.

Decades of hard-hitting advertising, education, deterrents and headlines about drunken drivers being jailed have seemingly still not got the message across.

Hampshire police breath tested 198 people in the crackdown last year, with seven drink-drivers found.

They also stopped 25 drugdrivers, and two people driving while impaired.

All that during a lockdown, when social occasions were deterred...

Those who regularly drive around Portsmouth might say that standards of motoring and knowledge of the Highway Code are patchy at the best of times.

Cars race out of side roads as if there is no chance of anything approaching on either side. Drivers slice off corners at junctions with similar abandon.

And why do people fail to signal correctly at roundabouts?

Add to that the menace of cyclists without lights, and now the added thrill of encounters with e-scooters and life for the safety-conscious motorist is a daily dice with danger.

Add drink or drugs into the equation, and the consequences really do not bear thinking about.

Anybody who takes a car out on the road, or a cycle, motorcycle, or e-scooter come to that, has a duty to be in control of that vehicle for their own safety and the safety of others.

And it is well worth remembering that alcohol drunk the night before may still be in your system, impairing your judgement and reaction times the next morning.

Don’t drink and drive. It’s just not worth the risk.