Over 250 people were killed on Britain’s roads by drunk drivers in 2023, new figures show. Data published by the Department for Transport shows there were 260 fatalities in drink-drive accidents. Whilst this was down on the previous year, it is still higher than a decade ago.
The total number of people killed or injured in 2023 by motorists over the limit was 6,310.
“Fatalities have decreased steadily since these figures were first published in 1979,” comments Hunter Abbott of breathalyser specialists AlcoSense. In that year 1,640 people were killed by drivers over the limit. However, having dropped to 200 in 2015, the number of deaths has remained stubbornly over that figure ever since.
“In my view 260 deaths is 260 too many. These figures only record accidents where a driver was actually over the legal limit, which in England and Wales is the highest in Europe,” he adds.
“What they don’t tell you is how many more casualties were caused by ‘lethal but legal’ drivers – those who were under the official limit but still impaired”.
According to analysis by AlcoSense of the new data, the South East accounted for a fifth of all drink drive casualties in Great Britain, with the North-East recording the fewest (2%).
June was the worst month for drink-related injuries on the roads, with 650 casualties recorded, and over four fifths (81%) of casualties were caused by male drivers.
Just 37% of motorists involved in a collision were breathalysed, compared with 51% a decade previously.
“More drivers need to be tested by Police after an accident,” says Abbott, who is also a member of the Parliamentary Advisory Council for Transport Safety (PACTS).
“Every year, one in six motorists fails the test or refuses to provide a sample”.
For context, it is estimated that around 5% of all casualties in reported road collisions in 2023 were involved in collisions in which at least one driver or rider was over the drink-drive limit. In 1979, 9% of road casualties occurred in collisions in which at least one driver or rider was over the drink-drive limit. This fell to 5% by 1992 and has mainly varied around 5% since then, which suggests that the reductions in drink-drive collisions over the past decade reflect overall reductions in road casualties.
(Graphic: Fatalities in reported drink-drive collisions, as a percentage of fatalities in all collisions: Great Britain, 1979 to 2023, courtesy of DfT)
