Deadly toll on roads as drivers shun drink warnings

North Yorkshire has already seen eight such collisions on its roads in the first nine months of this year, double the total for all of 2012, and a further 31 where motorists were seriously injured.

Senior officers at the county’s force fear the increase reflects a wider relative increase in the number of drink-driving collisions across the country despite decades of campaigns designed to stop people getting behind the wheel while over the limit.

Chief Constable Dave Jones told a scrutiny meeting the rise revealed by Department for Transport figures was “bizarre” and said he feared drivers were now “desensitised” to drink-driving campaigns.

He told the Yorkshire Post: “As part of our scanning of national developments there appears to be an emerging worrying trend where the presence of alcohol is increasing when linked to road collisions and clearly we have an ongoing concern that targeted campaigns against drink-driving are not hitting home.”

In North Yorkshire, where the number of fatal collisions overall has risen sharply in the last year, the percentage involving alcohol has climbed from 11 per cent in 2012 to 24 per cent so far this year.

Humberside Police said 13 people had been killed or seriously injured in collisions involving alcohol on roads in its area so far this year, compared with 10 in all of last year, 14 in 2012 and 12 in 2010.

In South Yorkshire, officers say “drink-driving remains a constant and significant factor in causing fatal collisions” but that the county has not had a rise comparable to North Yorkshire.

It emerged earlier this year that an estimated 290 people were killed in drink-drive accidents in 2012 across the country, up by more than a quarter compared with the 230 who died in 2011.

Road safety experts said the figures are alarming as they buck the trend of otherwise falling road casualties and point to a hard core of persistent drink-drivers.

It is feared the rise in fatal crashes means motorists are no longer influenced by hard-hitting drink-driving campaigns and that an alternative method is required to encourage them to change their behaviour.

North Yorkshire Police runs regular campaigns encouraging people to report motorists about to drive while over the limit, and arrested 103 people during its summer drink-driving campaign.

Despite the rise in fatal crashes in North Yorkshire, the number of people arrested for drink-driving offences up to October 20 this year is 757, down from the previous two years.

And although drink-driving fatalities have risen of late, numbers have been falling steadily since the 1970s and 1980s.

But police and crime commissioner Julia Mulligan said campaigns used to tackle drink-driving might need a new approach.

Recent national campaigns have included the Department for Transport’s Pub Loo Shocker, showing a video where drinkers in a pub bathroom are confronted by the bloody head of a person smashing through the mirror.

Mrs Mulligan said: “There is a huge amount of evidence pointing to the fact that when you start finger-wagging at people, they react negatively to that and switch off and don’t listen.

“I wonder whether we have reached a similar point with drink-driving campaigns. I wonder whether we need a different approach to drink-driving. We have got a new generation of drivers and we need to make sure our message is heard and acted upon by new drivers.”