The number of casualties and of incidents involving drunk drivers has reached a new peak since 2012, figures revealed by the British Department of Transport show.
Just in 2016, 240 people were killed in drunk-drive crashes, while 8,810 people were otherwise injured, publication Driving.co.uk reports.
The number of incidents involving drunk drivers was also on the rise: there were 6,040 incidents reported for the same timeframe.
Just like in previous years, young people represent a large chunk of casualties: 2,300 incidents involved youth aged 16 to 24, while that number shoots up to 2,700 if you also include children aged under 15. nearly 30 percent of all the people killed or injured in drunk-driving accidents are children and young adults, proving that, once more, those who are the most affected are the people who share no part in the blame.
Speaking of blame and responsibility, road safety charities are using the newly released figures to sound the alarm on the importance of staying sober at the wheel. This applies to both drivers and the people who agree to be passengers in a car driven by a drunk man or woman. It should also apply for the people with whom the driver drinks before driving, as common sense would dictate.
As Rebecca Ashton, head of driver for IAM RoadSmart, puts it, “often those who drink heavily do so in the company of others – we all cannot turn a blind eye while those same people pick up their car keys and head off home.”
At the same time, harsher laws are needed, Joshua Harris, director of campaigns for Brake believes. “The Government should put its money where its mouth is and align the [drink-driving] law with the message from its ‘Think!’ campaign,” he says in a statement to the same media outlet.
The number of incidents involving drunk drivers was also on the rise: there were 6,040 incidents reported for the same timeframe.
Just like in previous years, young people represent a large chunk of casualties: 2,300 incidents involved youth aged 16 to 24, while that number shoots up to 2,700 if you also include children aged under 15. nearly 30 percent of all the people killed or injured in drunk-driving accidents are children and young adults, proving that, once more, those who are the most affected are the people who share no part in the blame.
Speaking of blame and responsibility, road safety charities are using the newly released figures to sound the alarm on the importance of staying sober at the wheel. This applies to both drivers and the people who agree to be passengers in a car driven by a drunk man or woman. It should also apply for the people with whom the driver drinks before driving, as common sense would dictate.
As Rebecca Ashton, head of driver for IAM RoadSmart, puts it, “often those who drink heavily do so in the company of others – we all cannot turn a blind eye while those same people pick up their car keys and head off home.”
At the same time, harsher laws are needed, Joshua Harris, director of campaigns for Brake believes. “The Government should put its money where its mouth is and align the [drink-driving] law with the message from its ‘Think!’ campaign,” he says in a statement to the same media outlet.