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05 September 2008 05:55 BST

Young drink-drivers 'increasing'

Tuesday, 29 May 2007 14:42

More young people are involved in drink-driving incidences

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Young people are increasingly becoming the major drink-driving offenders, police have said.

An investigation has revealed that people aged between 17 and 24 make up a disproportionate number of offenders and casualties in drink-driving incidences.

Superintendent Dave Page told the BBC, which carried out the investigation, that there should be more public information films to warn young people of the dangers of drinking before going behind the wheel.

"About a quarter of all the arrests [in London] are people between 17 and 24, which is obviously very worrying," he said.

And Leicestershire police told the investigation that drink-driving has risen to its highest level for a decade in England and Wales.

In response to the study, Kevin Clinton, head of road safety at the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), said that it shows the urgent need for a reduction in the drink-drive limit and for police to be given powers to test motorists' breath anywhere and at any time.

"We have seen a worrying increase in the number of drink-drive related deaths in recent years and we have to do something to stop that," he said. "Studies have shown that by cutting the drink-drive limit from 80mg to 50mg would save 65 lives and 230 serious injuries on Britain's roads each year.

"Reducing the limit would be an ideal opportunity to kick-start the drink drive-campaign again by putting out new messages to educate the public and particularly address young drivers who may have missed out on the impact of earlier campaigns. We have to make it clear to all generations that drink-driving is socially unacceptable and costs lives."

The government will focus on drink-driving in its Think! Summer 2007 road safety campaign.
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Young drink-drivers 'increasing'

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