The estimated numbers and the percentages of all road deaths in accidents involving at least one driver over the legal alcohol limit in each year since 1980 to 2007 are given in the table. Provisional 2008 data will be available on 6 August 2009.
A drink drive accident is defined as being an incident on a public road in which someone is killed or injured and where one or more of the motor vehicle drivers or riders involved either refused to give a breath test specimen when requested to do so by the police (other than when incapable of doing so for medical reasons), or one of the following:
(i) failed a roadside breath test by registering over 35 micrograms of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath
(ii) died and was subsequently found to have more than 80 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood.
However, not all drink drive accidents are detected in this way, as there are some drivers involved for whom neither of the above test results are available, even though they were over the legal limit. The Department for Transport’s statistics therefore are adjusted to allow for this in order to produce a better estimate of the number of drink drive accidents and casualties. See in article 3 of “Road Casualties Great Britain—annual report 2007” published on the Department’s website at:
http://www.dft.gov.uk/pgr/statistics/datatablespublications/accidents/casualtiesgbar/roadcasualtiesgreatbritain20071
Copies of the report have been deposited in the Libraries of the House.
Fatalities involving at least one driver over legal alcohol limit All fatalities in reported personal injury accidents Percentage of fatalities involving at least one driver over legal alcohol limit of all fallibilities 1980 1,450 6,010 24 1981 1,420 5,846 24 1982 1,550 5,937 26 1983 1,110 5,445 20 1984 1,170 5,599 21 1985 1,040 5,165 20 1986 990 5,385 18 1987 900 5,125 18 1988 790 5,052 16 1989 810 5,373 15 1990 760 5,217 15 1991 660 4,568 14 1992 660 4,229 16 1993 540 3,814 14 1994 540 3,650 15 1995 540 3,621 15 1996 580 3,598 16 1997 550 3,599 15 1998 460 3,421 13 1999 460 3,423 13 2000 530 3,409 16 2001 530 3,450 15 2002 550 3,431 16 2003 580 3,508 17 2004 580 3,221 18 2005 550 3,201 17 2006 560 3,172 18 20071 460 2,946 16 1 Provisional data. The 2007 estimates are based on a reduced sample of coroners’ returns and may be biased. They remain provisional until more complete information for 2007 is available.