Figures published today, Thursday January 20th, reveal that across Cheshire 162 motorists were arrested during the month long police operation to tackle drunk driving.
The roads enforcement campaign was launched on December 1st as part of the "Good, Bad and the Ugly" campaign to tackle alcohol-related crime. During the month, 3,459 drivers were breathalysed or asked to take impairment tests to identify drug-taking. 602 of the tests were administered after a collision, 141 men and 21 women were arrested as a result of failing the test or refusing to take it and of these 43 were people under the age of 25.
Commenting on the results, Assistant Chief Constable Phil Thompson said: "Even though we had very challenging conditions on our roads with the adverse weather over the holiday period, some people made the very unwise decision to drink and drive. The scale of the drink driving over the Christmas period continues to be a matter of concern to police. It is particularly worrying that over 25% of the failed or refused tests involved young people.
"I am also concerned that 10% of the arrests were made on our normally very safe motorway network. Drink and drugs affect people's judgement – nobody with an ounce of sense would consider travelling at speeds of up to 70 miles per hour with too much alcohol in their system. Yet we arrested 16 people for doing just that."
"These figures clearly show that there remains considerable work to be done with the licensing industry and with retailers to make sure that all age groups get the message that drink driving, at any time of year, is a bad idea and has consequences in terms of crashes, prosecutions, lost driving licenses. For some, the ugly truth will be that by putting others at risk on the roads, they will lose their livelihood along with their driving license."
For the first time members of the public were asked to report drink drivers, on line, via the Constabulary's website and during the campaign 21 pieces of information led directly to action being taken to stop drink driving in local communities.
Of the 161 people arrested, 16 were stopped on the motorway network, 48 in Cheshire West and Chester, 54 in East Cheshire, 19 in Halton and 25 in Warrington. Five men were also arrested for driving under the influence of drugs.
