Drink driving numbers nearly double last year
Police‘alarmed’by festive campaign stats
NIKI TENNANT
One in every 15 motorists breathalysed by police over the festive season was over the limit – almost double that of the year before, a police chief has announced.
Assistant Chief Constable Mark Williams expressed his disappointment that of the 8,632 drivers stopped and breathalysed during Police Scotland’s Festive Road Safety Campaign, shockingly 565 motorists were snared for drink/drug driving offences.
This means one in every 15 drivers breathalysed by officers were over the limit, compared with one in 28 during the same period in 2017/18.
An average of 261 drivers were breathalysed every day during the campaign period, which ran from December 1 to January 2.
“Of the 565 detected, 23 were caught driving the morning after they had been drinking. It was very alarming that during this period, 33 motorists were caught more than four times over the limit,” said Assistant Chief Constable Williams.
During the campaign, Police Scotland made requests to the Procurator Fiscal to forfeit 64 vehicles as a result of drink driving.
ACC Williams said he was encouraged by the number of calls received from whistle-blowing members of the public who provided accurate information about drink drivers, which helped officers to act promptly to stop them.
He added that the reduced number of people being stopped was due to a more targeted approach based on previous information about offending and calls from the public to police or Crimestoppers.
During the campaign, some of the many incidents included a member of the public alerting police to a car being driven erratically in East Kilbride. When officers stopped the car, the driver was found to be almost seven times over the limit at the roadside. Members of the public also reported a car being driven erratically on the M8 near Newhouse.
The 22-year-old driver was breathalysed and found to be three times over the limit.
Officers in Falkirk were given information about a taxi driver.
He was then stopped, breathalysed and found to be more than three times over the limit.
He was banned from driving for 16 months and fined £500.