Young adults targeted in drink-drive campaign

In the first six months of 2018, out of 49 people who were charged with driving under the influence, 32 of those were under the age of 30.

The drink-drive campaign, which was launched yesterday, will include increased regular stop checks by police for a four-week period. Promotional posters will also be displayed in Randalls and Liberation Group pubs.

Drug and Alcohol Strategy co-ordinator Andrea Nightingale said that there was a culture for young people to drink more than they might realise.

‘Cocktails seem to be the drink of choice this summer so the purpose of this year’s campaign is to remind islanders that they need to be aware that it’s not easy to tell how many units of alcohol are included in each cocktail.

‘There is a fraternity of gin drinkers – it’s mostly young people. I think we used to find it was people between 30-50 [charged with drink-driving] but that seems to have changed.

‘We believe these campaigns make a difference in a drip-feed kind of way, it promotes the fact that we want our roads to be safe.

‘We’ve got really good education in schools, but the statistics show that young people are still getting behind the wheel after drinking.

‘We also rely on members of the public to let police know if they see anything suspicious about a driver,’ she said.

Guernsey Police deputy chief officer Nigel Taylor said advice from the force remains the same, not to drink any alcohol if you intend to drive safely. ‘Alcohol affects everyone differently and many factors can determine its impact on an individual – ranging from whether they’ve eaten to how much sleep they’ve had,’ he said.

‘While the legal limit is 35 micrograms per 100ml of breath, or 80mgs per 100ml of blood, the facts are that you can only be sure you’re not over the limit if you haven’t had anything alcoholic to drink at all.’

In the 2016 summer drink-driving campaign, 40 people were arrested, all as a result of information from the public.