On average, 3,000 people are killed or injured in drink-drive collisions each year in the UK.
If you're convicted of drink driving, your life will change. You will:
These things will happen if you're simply caught and convicted for drink driving. If you kill or injure someone while drink driving, the consequences for you will be much worse.
The legal limit is 35 micrograms of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath, or 80 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood. But any amount of alcohol can affect your ability to drive safely, and alcohol affects people differently. So the only way to make sure that you're under the limit is to not drink any alcohol if you're going to drive.
One unit usually means:
However, the strength of alcohol in various drinks differs hugely - and the measure you pour yourself at home is likely to be very different from the measure you receive in a pub. This all means that it's very difficult to determine how many units you've had - the only way to tell for sure is to take a breath test.
Again, the only way to make sure you're under the limit is to not drink any alcohol if you're going to drive.
Are you legally safe to drive the morning after drinking? Take a Saturday night's drinking:
It's impossible to get alcohol out of your system quickly; neither coffee nor a shower will help speed up the process. It just takes time.
You can be breath tested at any time of day or night, on any day of the year. For example:
Download Drink Drive poster (3.2MB)