Drinking and driving: 2016

Main points

• In 2015, 6% of all drivers of motorised vehicles and 8% of motorcyclist drivers/riders killed in traffic collisions were above the drink drive limit.
• The Department of Transport report that 8% of killed or serious injury accidents (KSI) that occurred in Wales in 2015 involved drivers over the blood alcohol limit.
• In terms of road accidents, police officers’ views about the contributory factors that led to accidents suggested that 9% of KSI accidents during 2016 involved drivers that were impaired by alcohol.
• In 2016, 66 accidents where the reporting police officer identified pedestrian(s) being impaired by alcohol as a contributory factor to that accident.
• In 2016, there were approximately 3.5 accidents where the driver was impaired by alcohol, for every 1 accident where a driver was impaired by drugs.

Breath tests of drivers taken after accidents show:

• considerable variation between the months of the year and the same months in different years with a 10.3% reduction in positive tests observed when compared to the 2015(r) data
• drivers were more likely to test positive at the weekend than on a weekday (4.6 vs 2.8(r))
• 64.5% of positive tests, for drivers, occurred between 18:00 to 03:59.

(r) Revised on 15 December 2017.