Drink Driving

If you drive at twice the legal alcohol limit you are at least 30 times more likely to cause a road crash, than a driver who has not been drinking.

Any amount of alcohol affects your ability to drive. There is no foolproof way of drinking and staying under the limit or of knowing how much an individual person can drink and still drive safely. 

Each person's tolerance to alcohol depends on a range of factors including: weight, gender, age, and metabolism, current stress levels, whether they have eaten recently and amount of alcohol.

The only safe option is not to drink alcohol if you plan to drive, and never offer an alcoholic drink to someone else who is intending to. 

For further information visit the Department of Transport.

The 'morning after' calculator

It takes about an hour for your body to rid itself of each unit of alcohol. Sometimes it’ll take longer depending on how healthy you are and how much you've eaten. Eating a big meal means alcohol is absorbed more slowly, so it takes longer to sober up.

You need to add an hour to the times illustrated, as this is how long it takes for alcohol to be absorbed into your blood stream.

< STRONG>

  • 25ml shot is one hour
  • 35ml shot is one and a half hours
  • 70ml double is three hours

Beer and cider pints:

  • 4% strength is two hours
  • 5.5% strength is three hours

Wine:

  • 250ml glass of15% wine is four hours
  • Bottle of15% winemeans you can't drive for 13 hours

Cans:

  • 3 - 4% is two hours
  • 5 - 5.5% is two and a half hours
  • 7.5% is three and a half hours
  • 9% is four hours

 

Out of Court Punishments LATEST: December 2011: A 29 year-old male made threats to punch another in a pub and was racially abusive to him. He was charged with racially aggravated common assault and racially aggravated Intentional Harassment. He received a 12 month suspended imprisonment sentence, a curfew for eight weeks and 150 hours unpaid work. Condition: He was fined £85 costs and made to pay £100 in compensation.

More Out of Court Punishments

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