The THINK! Christmas Drink Drive campaign was launched on Friday 30 November.
The campaign aims to convince all drivers, with a particular focus on young male drivers aged 17-29 years, that a drink drive conviction has the potential to ruin their life by highlighting a mixture of the legal and personal consequences:
- being caught & breathalysed by the police;
- 12 month driving ban;
- criminal record;
- hefty fine;
- lifestyle changes (i.e. potential loss of job, relationships or car).
The key message is ‘That pint could come between you and Christmas‘, which will also be used as a strapline in the advertising materials.
Drinking & Driving
Any person who is driving, attempting to drive, or in charge of a motor vehicle on the road, or in a public place (eg a pub car park or a garage forecourt), may be required by the police to provide a breath test, to ascertain whether they are over the prescribed limit of alcohol - 35 micrograms of alcohol per 100 millilitres of breath (or 80 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood).
The Police are entitled to randomly stop your car, but they can only insist on a breath test if they have reasonable cause to suspect you have committed a traffic offence, or have consumed alcohol (eg they can smell it on your breath), or they reasonably believe you have been involved in an accident (eg the description of your car matches that given by a witness).
You do not have a right to insist on supplying a sample of blood or urine instead. If you fail to supply a breath specimen at the station you will committed an offence, unless you have a reasonable excuse. Being too drunk or unfit to supply the necessary breath specimen is NOT a reasonable excuse.
A medical condition which prevents you from supplying enough breath for the machine to sample may be a sufficient excuse. If you have such a condition you must advise the police at the time.