Whilst it might be the season to be jolly, new evidence suggests that drink driving continues to be a growing problem which is why Leicestershire police have announced their 2019 drink drive campaign since an increase in offences last year. In December 2018, Leicestershire Police officers made 122 drink and 33 drug drive arrests, this was 56% more than December 2017 which saw 78 drink and 21 drug drivers detained at the roadside.
With so much confusion around what are the legal limits allowed when drinking and then driving, it’s little wonder that so many partygoers fall foul of the law – often unintentionally.
Leicester-based health & wellbeing experts, Check My Health, have released a Breathalyser Self-Test kit that allows users to test themselves to see if they’re below the legal limit before getting behind a wheel.
Check My Health, which is part of the Unlimited Wellbeing Group, have also underlined their commitment to making the region’s roads safer by offering businesses throughout the East Midlands the opportunity to obtain some free samples that can be handed out to employees ahead of the party season.
The pocket size kits take a simple saliva sample (a swab of the mouth) and, much like a home pregnancy kit, will give an immediate result. Partnering with leading supplier, Accutest Solutions, these pocket-size breath-testing devices are as accurate as a blood test with results in just 4 minutes. It is thought that this could significantly reduce DUI – (Driving Under Influence) offences – with research proving that 90% of drivers would support in-car breathalysers.
The kits have been widely used on the Continent for several years and is part of a ‘suggested’ car care-pack that every driver is expected to have in their glovebox.
Commenting, Sanjiv Corepal, Founder of Unlimited Wellbeing, says, “Many of us enjoy a drink or two at this time of year but how that drink affects your ability to drive is critical to understand. There are so many factors as to how that glass of champagne, cocktail or pint of lager changes your perception of risk – including stress, tiredness, whether you’ve eaten recently – that the only way to know, with confidence, that you can safely get behind the wheel and operate a car is to have one of these self-testing kits in your pocket or glovebox. Even if this breathalyser kit saves only one needless death, it will be considered a success.”
Dave Leverton, Chief Operations Officer Unlimited Wellbeing says, “Drink driving figures for the East Midlands are quite shocking and with almost one in three arrests taking place the morning after, we want to help keep our roads safer this Christmas.”
“Many people will be attending work parties and enjoying the festivities and it can be very easy to drive hours later and still be over the limit. Our devices make it easy to know whether you are fit to drive before setting off. Hopefully we can help save lives and preserve people’s livelihoods.”
“We are delighted to support Leicestershire Police’s Christmas drink drive campaign and encourage responsible local companies to hand out our breath test devices to their employees ahead of staff functions and office parties.”
Glynis Wright, President of Leicester Law Society comments; “Anything that can be done to help save lives and protect against the harrowing effects of injuries sustained by drink driving accidents particularly over the Christmas period has to be embraced. The potential for having that one extra drink at Christmas when people are in the party mood and thus putting themselves and others at risk is all too common. A self-testing kit that can either be purchased or even that employers may wish to consider giving out to staff is a simple, yet highly-effective way of increasing levels of self-regulation that support people to make the right decision not to drive under the influence”.
