Drinking and Driving Over the Holidays

The festive season is upon us again which is wonderful, but how many families will have their festive season destroyed because of the stupidity of drink drivers? Young men between the age of 18 – 25 years are more likely to drink and drive, so we ask parents to monitor their young adults and save lives this Christmas.


The facts
Did you know that if you drive at twice the legal alcohol limit you are at least 30 times more likely to cause a road crash, than a driver who hasn't been drinking.

Any amount of alcohol affects your ability to drive. Alcohol enters the body quickly as it is already in a liquid form. It takes just 10 minutes for 50% of the alcohol consumed to enter the blood stream. There is no foolproof way of drinking and driving safely, or of knowing how much an individual person can drink and still drive safely.
Each person's tolerance to alcohol depends on a range of factors including:

• weight
• gender
• age
• metabolism
• current stress levels
• whether they have eaten recently
• amount and type of alcohol consumed

So the only safe option is not to drink alcohol if you plan to drive, and never offer an alcoholic drink to someone else who is intending to drive.



If you've been drinking, it's better not to drive. There are plenty of alternative ways to get home - you could:

• book a taxi
• stay at a friend's house overnight
• arrange a lift with someone who isn't drinking
• phone your parents

Coffee and cold showers the morning after a night out don't help you sober up. Time is the only way to get the alcohol out of your system and you could still be unfit to drive many hours after drinking.

Please enjoy your Christmas and don’t become a statistic