Jump in drink drivers caught morning after their night out: Arrests between 6am and 8am rise by 4% in a year

  • Rise in 'morning-after' drink drivers according to new study
  • Many do not realise they could still be over legal limit the next day
  • Christmas and New Year a peak time for drink driving offences
  • It takes one hour for the body to break down one unit of alcohol

By Ray Massey for the Daily Mail

Published: | Updated:


The number of ‘morning-after’ motorists caught over the drink-drive limit the day after a night out on the tiles  is increasing.

Arrests between 6am and 8am for drink-driving following a  heavy night rose by nearly 4  per cent last year, according to police figures.

Many motorists do not realise they are still at risk of being over the limit even after hours of sleeping it off.

A police breathalyser: Many people do not realise that they could still be over the legal drink driving limit the morning after a night out

A police breathalyser: Many people do not realise that they could still be over the legal drink driving limit the morning after a night out

And with Christmas and New Year looming – the peak time for morning-after offences, accounting for 10 per cent of the annual total – arrests are likely to soar further.

A separate survey of 1,688 drivers by insurers LV showed that 3 per cent – or 1.2million – admitted driving while over the legal limit the morning after a drinking session in the past two years.

Some 37 per cent insisted that driving was unavoidable, 26 per cent said they were only going a short distance and 19 per cent thought they were all right to take to the road.

Seven per cent even thought it was acceptable to drive because they were not on a motorway, and 13 per cent believed they were only a little over the limit so it did not matter.

The report noted that most morning-after drink-drivers still have around five hours to go before they become sober enough to drive.

Arrests between 6am and 8am for drink driving following a heavy night rose by nearly four per cent last year

Arrests between 6am and 8am for drink driving following a heavy night rose by nearly four per cent last year

The arrest figures were obtained by LV under a Freedom of Information Act request and were based on replies from 22 police forces.

They show that 350 drivers were arrested for drink-driving between 6am and 8am in 2011, rising to 363 in 2012 – an increase of 3.7 per cent.

The LV survey showed that 46 per cent of drivers underestimated how long it took for alcohol to leave the body – or did not know, while 30 per cent of men and 19 per cent of women admitted to having driven at least once after a heavy drinking session the night before.

The LV report says: ‘Morning-after drink-driving is on the increase, with more motorists putting themselves and other road users at risk.

'This upward trend is being exacerbated by a lack of awareness among drivers about how long it takes alcohol to leave their system.’

The current drink-drive limit is 80mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood, 35mg per 100ml of breath or 107mg per 100ml of urine. This equates to approximately four units for an average man and two to three units for an average woman.

Official guidelines say it takes an hour for the body to break down one unit. But experts say that this is not a reliable measure because it will vary depending on the person’s age, weight, gender and metabolic rate.


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