Motorists, breath testing and drink-driving

Breath testing of drivers

These tables cover all motorists who were known to be involved in injury road collisions (excluding, for example, those untraced drivers involved in hit and run collisions). Here, a motorist is defined as the driver or the rider of a motor vehicle (including, for example, motorcyclists)

In 2023, 58% of motorists involved in injury collisions were asked for a breath test (this ranged from 43% to 71% across the police force divisions). The breath test proved positive (or the motorist refused to take the test) for 4.1% of those drivers breathalysed. This represented 2.4% of the total number of motorists involved in collisions (including those who were not asked for a breath test). Although there was a general downward trend in these percentages, in the last couple of years these have been rising as seen in Table 19.

Tables 20 and 21 show the time and day of the collision (Table 20) and for a number of years (Table 21). Table 21 shows that, in 2023, of the 165 positive / refused cases, 31% occurred between 9 pm and 3 am (15% between 9 pm and midnight, plus 16% between midnight and 3 am). Table 20 shows that, using 2019 to 2023 averages, the number of positive / refused cases, expressed as a percentage of motorists involved in collisions, was highest at 23% between midnight and 6 am, but varied depending upon the day of the week, from 7% (the average for 3 am to 6 am for Monday-Thursday) to 13% (3 am to 6 am on Sundays). Table 20 shows that, although the period from 9 pm to midnight had the highest number of positive / refused cases, the equivalent percentages were not as high, because between 9 pm and midnight there were many more motorists involved in collisions than between midnight and 3 am.

Drink-drive collisions and casualties

Table 22 shows the estimates (made by the Department for Transport) of the numbers of injury road collisions involving illegal alcohol levels. They are higher than the number of drivers with positive breath test results (or who refused to take the breath test) as they include allowances for the numbers of cases where drivers were not breath tested because of the severity of their injuries, or because they left the scene of the collision. Information about blood alcohol levels of road users who died within 12 hours of being injured in a road collision is supplied by the Procurators Fiscal.

The estimates show that the numbers of drink-drive collisions and casualties fell by 55% and 47% respectively between 2012 and 2022 (the latest year for which estimates are available): from a rounded estimate of 440 to roughly 200 (collisions) and from around 580 to some 310 (casualties). While fluctuating from year to year, the number of people killed as a result of drink-drive collisions is estimated to have by 20 from 10 in 2012 to 30 2022. The adjusted number of serious casualties is estimated to have dropped by 100% (from roughly 180 in 2012 to some 90 in 2022).

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