Young drivers 'unaware' of drink danger

3 December 2001: A new RAC sponsored survey in the UK suggests that a large number of young people are unaware of the dangers of drinking and driving, even after years of being blitzed with information to the contrary.

A quarter of those questioned believed they could drink three to five pints of beer and still be below the legal alcohol limit - which is Britain is around half that in Ireland.

And more than half thought they could consume three to five pints before their driving ability would be affected.

The survey was conducted in the Maxpower magazine, whose readers are typically in the 18-25 age bracket. Almost half thought that having two pints of beer would make them better drivers. A third thought they would only need five hours or less to be sober enough to drive after a heavy night's drinking.

The findings follow a poll last week by insurance company Direct Line which showed a third of motorists regularly drink and drive, believing they were under the legal alcohol limit.

RAC Foundation's Edmund King suggests that safety programmes have over-emphasised the dangers of speed, to the detriment of progress on cutting down drink-driving. "The assumption that drinking is unacceptable seems no longer to hold water," he says, "particularly among the very group who were thought to be most convinced of the evils of drink-drive - young motorists." TW