Motorists, breath testing and drink-driving

Breath testing of drivers

Tables 19, 20, and 21 refer.

These tables cover all motorists who were known to be involved in injury road accidents (excluding, for example, those untraced drivers involved in hit and run accidents). Here, a motorist is defined as the driver or the rider of a motor vehicle (including, for example, motorcyclists)

In 2021, 50% of motorists involved in injury accidents were asked for a breath test (this ranged from 35% to 66% across the police force divisions). The breath test proved positive (or the motorist refused to take the test) for 3.5% of those drivers breathalysed. This represented 1.7% of the total number of motorists involved in accidents (including those who were not asked for a breath test). Although there was a general downward trend in these percentages, in the last couple of years these have been rising as seen in Table 19.

Tables 20 and 21 show the time and day of the accident (Table 20) and for a number of years (Table 21). Table 21 shows that, in 2021, of the 107 positive / refused cases, 35% occurred between 9 pm and 3 am (20% between 9 pm and midnight, plus 15% between midnight and 3 am). Table 20 shows that, using 2017 to 2021 averages, the number of positive / refused cases, expressed as a percentage of motorists involved in accidents, was highest (at around 12%) between midnight and 6 am, but varied depending upon the day of the week, from 7% (the average for 3 am to 6 am for Monday-Thursday) to 17% (3 am to 6 am on Saturdays). Table 20 shows that, although the period from 9 pm to midnight had the highest number of positive / refused cases, the equivalent percentages were not as high, because between 9 pm and midnight there were many more motorists involved in accidents than between midnight and 3 am.

Drink-drive accidents and casualties

Table 22 shows the estimates (made by the Department for Transport) of the numbers of injury road accidents involving illegal alcohol levels. They are higher than the number of drivers with positive breath test results (or who refused to take the breath test) as they include allowances for the numbers of cases where drivers were not breath tested because of the severity of their injuries, or because they left the scene of the accident. Information about blood alcohol levels of road users who died within 12 hours of being injured in a road accident is supplied by the Procurators Fiscal.

The estimates show that the numbers of drink-drive accidents and casualties fell by 64% and 66% respectively between 2010 and 2020 (the latest year for which estimates are available): from a rounded estimate of 630 to roughly 190 (accidents) and from around 740 to some 250 (casualties). While fluctuating from year to year, the number of people killed as a result of drink-drive accidents is estimated to have double from 10 in 2010 to 20 in 2020. The adjusted number of serious casualties is estimated to have dropped by 71% (from roughly 210 in 2010 to some 60 in 2020).

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