Christmas drink drive arrests down by 25 per cent

The number of people arrested during this year's Christmas drink and drug driving campaign fell by 25 per cent compared with last year.

A total of 100 people were arrested during the campaign - which ran from December 1 2012 to New Year's Day, down from 133 last year.

Of the drivers arrested during this year's campaign, 79 were men and 21 were women. More than half  were between 25 and 50 years old.

During the campaign police carried out more road-side checks and patrols as well as breath testing every driver involved in an accident.

Traffic Sergeant Joe Pardey said: “It is encouraging to see that the number of drivers risking their lives, and the lives of other road users, by choosing to drink and drive over the festive season has reduced.

“Most of the motorists stopped were very supportive of the officers' actions and fully supported the campaign to reduce road casualties.”

Officers also acted on information submitted by the public to intercept suspected drink drivers.

Sergeant Pardey continued: “The message seems to be getting across to the people of Dorset that drinking and driving is dangerous and just not worth the risk.

“However, I'd continue to encourage members of the public to contact us if they suspect someone is driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol so we can take action.”

Comments(9)

Controversial But True says...
10:15am Tue 8 Jan 13

Mmmmmm!

That's a strange statistic, as police are down by about the same percentage!

Rock on Cameron - you're doing this country great job! You've made more cuts than a self harming hairdresser!

Lord Spring says...
10:17am Tue 8 Jan 13

Roadside checks is the thing that baffles me I thought that the legistation passed, excluded random breath checks or has it been ammended or away around it been found

H2o-hara says...
10:26am Tue 8 Jan 13

This could explain the 1,724 bike thefts in the area.

Hessenford says...
11:03am Tue 8 Jan 13

Road side checks should be used all year round to detect drink driving.
Not really something to cheer about because the number was down from 133 to 100, all this says is that only 100 were actually caught, how many others were not caught, with Christmas and new year I suspect that more got away with drink driving than were stopped.

funkyferret says...
11:04am Tue 8 Jan 13

Staffing CUT
Road deaths & serious injuries UP
Drink-drive arrests DOWN
And for this year, a further £10m cut from Dorset Police budget & 200 more officer's posts to go.
On a brighter note, MP pay, & pension conditions INCREASED .
'We are all in this together. ....!'

ferndun says...
11:33am Tue 8 Jan 13

This proves what exactly? The figures are compared to what? We have no idea how many vehicles or individuals were stopped or approached. A classic case of statistics meaning nothing!

Pablo23 says...
1:29pm Tue 8 Jan 13

They should pull those coming out of the conservative and labour clubs that'll put the statistic back up

Peggy Babcock says...
1:46pm Tue 8 Jan 13

Every six months or so we have this story yet are never given the full picture - i.e. how many drivers were stopped in total an the % that were then found to be drink driving. Only then will we have a more accurate trend.

Can the Echo provide this info?

Teddy 1 says...
5:21pm Tue 8 Jan 13

Agree with Peggy Babcock...what are the stats exactly and are they comparable? Ie have the same number of people been stopped this year compared to last over the same time frame (I doubt it) and have the percent of arrests fallen? Have the police carried out PROPER statistical analysis, please give us some proper meaningful information.

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