December 2012
Featured in this insight: Automotive, Food & drink, Police, crime & community safety
Poll finds drink driving during festive season not completely stamped out: Market research by theAA and Populus has revealed that there is still a hard core section of the British population that continue to risk lives over the festive season by drink driving.
Nearly 20% of the 22,000 motorists surveyed admitted drink-driving over Christmas – although half of these incidents happened over 20 years ago, there is still a percentage of drivers prepared to risk offending even now.
The poll found that 4% of the respondents owned up to festive drink-driving between 10 and 20 years ago, while 3% admitted to doing so in the last five years and 1% within the last year.
Furthermore, the study showed that drink-driving is more likely to happen amongst youngsters in the past and the present – more drivers aged between 20 and 24 fail breath tests than any other age group.
The poll also discovered that social norms and attitudes to drink-driving have changed over time however, since the AA confirmed that 30 years ago many drivers viewed driving under the influence of alcohol as an acceptable risk.
Nevertheless, with 62% of the surveyants claiming to be currently cutting back on taxi use to save money, there could be a spike in drink-driving this festive season. The AA and drinks company Pernod Ricard UK have launched a joint Christmas campaign to try to quell this possibility.
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