Estimated number of reported road accidents involving a car drink driver, by driver age, accidents by licence holder and per mile driven (Great Britain, 2005-2009 average and 2012).
In these Department for Transport statistics, the focus is solely on reported road accidents involving car drivers who were over the drink-driving legal limit. Two time periods are used for comparison: the average from the years 2005-2009 and the figures from 2012. These figures are presented in nine age categories, starting with those under 17 years of age and ending with those aged 60 years or over.
The total for all age categories for the 2005-2009 period was 8,170 car drink drivers, whereas this number had fallen to 5,920 in 2012.
The highest number of car drink drivers for both the 2005-2009 period and 2012 was the 20-24 years age group whilst – understandably – the lowest for both periods was the under 17 years age group.
Interestingly, the second highest number of car drink drivers for both periods was the 25-29 years age group, which means that the highest concentration of car drink drivers is in those aged 20-29 years.
Whilst the trend was for the numbers of car drink drivers to reduce between the first and second time period, in just one case this did not happen. For those in the 60 or over age group, the number actually increased from 300 to 310.
The number of reported road accidents involving a car drink driver, per licence holder, fell from 22 in the 2005-2009 period to 15 in 2012. The decrease was constant across all age groups.
Similarly, the number of reported road accidents involving a car drink driver, per mile driven, fell from 33 in the 2005-2009 period to 24 in 2012. Again, the decrease was constant across all age groups.
So, in summary, the trend illustrated by these official statistics was a falling number of reported road accidents involving a car drink driver – however these figures are presented (ie by driver age, accidents per licence holder or per mile driven). That the only increase is in those car drink drivers aged 60 or over may be worthy of further investigation, but it is interesting to speculate why this should be the case.
If you have been charged with a drink driving offence, get the experts on your side by calling our team of drink drive solicitors on 01623 397200.