ACPO police figures show that in 2011 more people failed breath tests between the hours of 6am and 11am than during the hour before or after midnight. And a new AA Populus survey of 21,000 drivers shows that the majority (56%) do not know when it is safe to drive the morning after drinking.

In response, Pernod Ricard UK and the AA have launched their fourth Christmas anti-drink driving campaign, urging drivers to ‘accept responsibility’ before getting behind the wheel, focusing on the morning after a drinking occasion.

Edmund King, AA president, said: ‘Too many drivers are caught out by being over the limit the morning after the night before. We don’t want the morning after to end in mourning disasters so are advising drivers to think carefully before driving after a night out.

‘It is difficult to work out whether there is still alcohol in the system the following day. One unit of alcohol takes about one hour to get out of the system. However this is not a precise science as it depends on size, gender, whether you have eaten, state of your liver, metabolism and even mood. The best advice is if you are going to drink, don’t drive and if you are going to drive, don’t drink.’

In the AA Populus poll drivers were asked if they started drinking at 9pm and drank a total of 12 units of alcohol over three hours when they thought they would legally be allowed to drive again (generally it takes an hour for the body to get rid of one unit of alcohol but it is also advisable to add an extra hour).

• 56% either didn’t know or selected a time when they might still be over the limit.
• 11% of 25-34 year olds thought they would be fine at 9am the next day.
• Drivers in the North East and North West were least likely to know when it would be safe to drive (59%).
• Drivers in Scotland, London and Eastern area were most likely to know when it might be safe (46%).

Denis O’Flynn, managing director of Pernod Ricard UK, said: ‘It is important that drivers pay attention to how much they are drinking – the number of units per bottle is indicated on the back of all Pernod Ricard UK products in order to help the public calculate their alcohol intake.’

Further details on Pernod Ricard’s responsible drinking campaigns are available in the ‘Wise Drinking’ brochure: http://pernod-ricard.com/5970/csr/responsible-drinking/wise-drinking or acceptresponsibility.org/drinkdriving