Road safety charity Brake says it was shocked by new statistics showing the number of convicted drink-drivers who are allowed to keep their licence.

A freedom of information request from insurance company LV showed that over 2.5 per cent of drivers caught over the legal driving limit last year did not have their licence revoked, meaning that nearly 1,500 convicted drink-drivers remain on the road.

Brake spokesman, Richard Coteau exclusively told FIRE: "These statistics show that a shocking number of drivers are wilfully taking huge risks with their lives and the lives of others.

"It is vitally important there is an effective deterrent to stop people drinking and driving.

"Brake is calling on the Government to ensure we have more traffic police carrying out more drink driving tests and also impose a zero tolerance drink drive limit, to send out the clear message that it's none for the road."

There is an even greater risk to road users in London or Suffolk where the amount of people escaping disqualification after being caught drink-driving is as high as 4.7 per cent.

That figure fails to account for those people who drive having consumed alcohol but are not picked up by police, something LV estimates around two-thirds of the population have experienced happen to them.

The government will run its usual Christmas anti-drink-drive campaigns in the coming weeks, but Coteau believes this is not enough to stop what he calls "an abhorrent crime that wrecks lives every day."

 

Read about West Midlands Fire Service's own road safety campaign here or for more information visit www.brake.org.uk   

Posted October 27 2011 at 1630. Comment by emailing: richard.hook@pavpub.com