Herts drink-drivers gambling with lives

A COUNTYWIDE survey shows that most people charged with drink driving do so because they think they can get away with it. The survey carried out by Herts County Council s road safety unit with alcohol problems advisory service Hapas tried to establish the

A COUNTYWIDE survey shows that most people charged with drink driving do so because they think they can get away with it.

The survey carried out by Herts County Council's road safety unit with alcohol problems advisory service Hapas tried to establish the types of motorists who drink drive so that future campaigns could be more accurately targeted.

The survey showed that motorists charged with drink driving in St Albans were made up of 75 per cent men, 45 per cent aged between 24 and 40 and 10 per cent aged under 24.

Fifty per cent of them were married, 44 per cent had children and 60 per cent were employed full or part-time.

Of those who specified 17 per cent had manual jobs, 17 per cent had managerial jobs and six per cent had clerical jobs.

Helen Cooper, manager of the drink drive programme for Hapas, said: "We were keen to help the road safety unit try and reduce the number of needless drink drive casualties on our roads by building up a typical profile of the types of offender."

County Councillor Stuart Pile, responsible for highways and transport, said the survey would help drink drive campaigns to be more accurately targeted towards those most likely to offend.

When asked what led motorists to drink and drive the most popular reason given was that they were not aware they were over the limit or that they didn't think they would get caught.