Drink-drivers now all ages, say police targeting serious crashes

North Yorkshire Police has set up a Major Collision Investigation Team (MCIT), a dedicated unit which will look into all fatal or life-threatening crashes to ensure traffic officers are free to patrol the roads in England’s biggest county.

The introduction of the eight officer team, based in Thirsk, replaces the previous system where police would investigate crashes on their patch, often taking them away from their regular work.

Last year the North Yorkshire force dealt with 46 fatal collisions involving the death of 51 people, only two fewer fatalities than the much larger West Yorkshire Police and an increase of 15 from the number of road deaths in 2012.

The county also saw a large increase in the number of fatal collisions involving alcohol, prompting concerns drivers are becoming “desensitised” to awareness campaigns about drink-driving.

Inspector Mick Barron, who heads the new MCIT, said the number of drink-drive accidents had come down in recent years but that police would struggle to eradicate the problem.

He said: “It used to be a particular age group, it used to be people in their 50s and 60s who think ‘I am an experienced driver’. For some reasons youngsters are starting to drink drive again.

“When I was a traffic cop in the 90s out on patrol in Harrogate and on the A1, we would be more likely to target people in their late 40s and 50s in their Mercedes than a young kid in a Ford Escort, you wouldn’t expect them to drink and drive.

“Now it is pretty much across the board, it could be anyone. Though the numbers have reduced, the profile of a drink driver is not so easily determined. It is pretty much indiscriminate.”

On average, 3,000 people are killed or seriously injured each year in drink-drive collisions across the country, meaning one in six of all road deaths involve drivers who are over the legal alcohol limit.

A total of 118 drink-driving arrests were made during North Yorkshire Police’s Christmas Safety Campaign. Some motorists were ordered to undergo the Drink Impaired Drivers programme to educate them about the impact of their actions.

The new team, which started work in September but has only been at full capacity from this month, brings together specialists in collision investigation, family liaison and interviewing vulnerable witnesses as part of a “gold-standard service”.

Its first major job was a probe into the death of three Polish bacon factory workers on the B1248, near the village of Wharram-le-Street, in November. Officers are close to presenting their findings about the crash to a coroner.

They are also interviewing 70 witnesses to work out how a dead male pedestrian came to be lying on the road on the A65, near Draughton, after being discovered on January 8.

Deputy Chief Constable Tim Madgwick said: “Sadly, fatal and serious collisions are a major part of police work and require meticulous and intensive resourcing to enable us to obtain the appropriate outcome for victims and their families.

“Having a dedicated resource for these investigations means that roads policing officers can get back onto the roads to carry out education, enforcement and preventative work.”