UK drinkers let us down

17 April 2007

UK has one of worst records for drink deaths
Drink deaths increased by more than 2% in UK
Czech Republic has biggest fall, with 11% drop

The UK's drink-drive death total is rising, while it's falling in most of the rest of Europe

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Drink-drive deaths across Europe have fallen overall, but not thanks to the UK, where deaths have risen.

A new report published by the European Transport Safety Council (ETSC) today shows that half of the 18 countries included the study showed reductions in drink-related deaths.

Of the remaining nine that didn't, Great Britain showed one of the biggest increases in drink-related deaths, with only Finland, Slovenia, Hungary and Spain coming out worse.

The ETSC said it was vital that the police in these countries imposed stricter enforcement of drink-drive limits. ETSC executive director Jorg Beckmann said: 'Today, alcohol checks are more of an exception than a rule, and too few countries apply the strategies that have proven to work.'

The famous lager-producing countries of the Czech Republic and Germany show the biggest drop in drink-drive deaths, their 11.3% and 6.2% drop comparing with Great Britain's increase of more than 2%.

The ETSC says the poor progress made by Great Britain and other countries has hampered overall European progress towards death reduction targets.

An influential committee of MPs and the European Commission recommended that the UK's drink-drive limit should be lowered from 80mg of alcohol in 100ml of blood to 50mg in line with most of the rest of Europe.

Although other countries that adopted the lower limit in Europe have seen deaths fall, the Department for Transport rejected the call.

Like the ETSC and other safety groups in the UK, the DfT said it would prefer proper enforcement of the existing limit. However, despite the fact that fewer breath tests are being conducted by police, more drivers are returning positive results, and more road users are being killed.