15% would risk drink-driving

Nearly one in six London motorists would risk driving while over the legal alcohol limit, a new survey reveals.

Fifteen per cent would risk drinking two pints of beer or four glasses of wine before driving - enough to put many over the limit and certainly enough to cloud their judgment.

Worryingly, 2.2 per cent in the survey of 3,450 Londoners admitted they would drink three pints of beer or six glasses of wine before driving - easily enough to put most drivers well beyond the limit.

The findings shocked safety campaigners who today demanded a rethink of anti drink-drive campaigns.

The numbers prepared to drinkdrive in London are higher than in the rest of the UK, but the survey by the Department of Transport, and Auto Trader magazine, paints a grim picture for road safety in the country as a whole. Of 30,000 drivers quizzed nationally, 12.6 per cent said they would risk drinking two pints of beer before driving while 1.9 per cent would risk drinking three pints. A further 78 per cent across the UK said they would drink one pint or two glasses of wine before driving.

The results come one month after police figures showed London experienced a huge surge in drink-driving over Christmas, with over-the-limit motorists involved in more than 270 accidents on the capital's roads.

Today the RAC Foundation said drivers were "utterly confused" as to what the safe limit was because of inadequate official advice and major changes in the drinks industry.

But the Department of Transport insisted its safety campaigns had cut drink-driving deaths from 1,600 a year to 520 over 25 years. A spokesman said the campaigns were being switched from only Christmas to cover the year.