Drink driving is one of the most talked about topics related to road safety here in Britain. It’s important for motorists who drink to be aware of what the law says about drink driving. This includes the legal limits for drink driving and what penalties and other consequences can occur if someone drink drives.
In this guide, we delve into what you need to know about drink driving in Britain, including legal limits and the effects and consequences of this act.
What is the drink-driving limit in the UK?
The current limit for how much alcohol someone can have in their body to be considered legally fit to drive is measured in different ways. One common measurement used is the alcohol concentration in a person’s blood.
In England, Wales and Northern Ireland, you are considered impaired and therefore unfit to drive if the alcohol concentration in your blood exceeds 80 milligrammes per 100 millilitres of blood.
Alternative measurements include 35 micrograms per 100 millilitres of breath or 107 milligrammes per 100 millilitres of urine.
In Scotland, the measurements are stricter and the maximum alcohol concentration in your blood can’t exceed 50 milligrammes per 100 millilitres of blood in order to drive. Alternatively, a driver shouldn’t exceed 22 micrograms per 100 millilitres of breath or 67 milligrammes per 100 millilitres of urine.
In recent months, there have been calls from road safety campaign groups and motorists in surveys for the drink-drive limit in England, Wales and Northern Ireland to be lowered. These nations are among those with the highest limits for drink-driving in the world, whereas Scotland’s legal limit for drink driving is on par with the vast majority of other European countries.
How much can you drink before you're over the drink-driving limit?
How much you can drink before exceeding the legal drink drive limit depends on many factors including what type of alcohol you drink, the quantity you drink and your gender. Men and women are affected by alcoholic drinks at different rates, but even things like your weight and how recently you ate food will have a significant influence as well.
Therefore, any guidelines given on how many units (i.e. how much) you can drink before exceeding the drink drive limit can only be viewed as a rough measurement rather than as a precise calculation.
The only truly safe option to take then is to not drink any alcoholic drinks at all if you know you are going to be driving afterwards.
Effects of drinking and driving
Even a small amount of alcohol affects a person’s ability to drive. If you consume enough alcohol to exceed the legal drink drive limit, then many of the functions you rely on to drive properly will be compromised.
For instance, while under the influence of alcohol, the brain takes longer to receive messages from the eye. Processing information becomes more challenging and instructions to the body’s muscles are delayed meaning slower reaction times. You could also experience blurred or double vision, making driving even more dangerous and difficult.
Moreover, driving with alcohol in your blood may lead you to take more dangerous risks because you’re more likely to act on urges you normally repress.
Consequences of drinking and driving
Besides the obvious risk of crashing and causing injury or death to yourself and others, there are severe legal implications if you are found drinking and driving by authorities.
If the police want to investigate whether you are over the drink driving limit, they will carry out a screening breath test at the roadside, via the use of a breathalyser. If you fail this test, or if the police have other grounds to believe that your driving was impaired through drink, you will be taken to a police station and given a final breath test with a more complex breathalyser.
The police can carry out a breathalyser test if you are involved in an accident, commit a moving traffic offence (such as going through a red light) or if you have given them another reason to believe you may be over the drink drive limit.
Anyone caught driving over the legal drink drive limit will be banned from driving for at least 12 months and can be fined up to £5,000. Between three and 11 penalty points will also be applied to the offender’s driving licence, depending on the severity of the crime. Drink driving can even potentially lead to a prison sentence of up to six months.
Motorists convicted of drink driving could possibly undertake a drink driving awareness course in order to reduce their driving ban.
If a driver is caught drink driving more than once within a ten-year period, a driving ban lasting at least three years will be issued.