Road safety charity Brake is calling on drivers to have ‘none for the road’ this Christmas, and to make it a year-round resolution to protect road users.

Brake’s data analysis indicates that drink driving is a danger at Christmas and year-round

Its new analysis reveals that it’s actually the month of August where the highest numbers of drink-driving crashes and people killed or seriously injured occur, averaged out and based on data covering the eight-year period between 2012 and 2019.

December is, however, still a peak month for drink driving. It was the second worst month for drink driving crashes in the analysis and the fourth worst for people killed and seriously injured in the same period.

Brake has renewed its calls for people when driving – itself the most dangerous activity most adults do – to not drink any alcohol. England and Wales have the highest drink-drive limit in Europe and the charity warns this higher limit risks a view that some alcohol before driving is acceptable.

But actually any amount of alcohol impairs and so Brake says a zero-tolerance limit must be implemented to protect road users.

Jason Wakeford, head of campaigns, commented: “Thousands of people are being needlessly killed and injured at the hands of drink-drivers every month. We need to change the culture around drink-driving, starting with more awareness that any amount can be deadly.

“While measures such as effective ongoing police enforcement and public information campaigns, including THINK!, are helping to reduce deaths and injuries, the Government should follow Scotland’s lead and reduce the legal limit, as per the call from the Safe Roads For All Alliance. Such a move would make it clear to drivers that no amount of alcohol is safe when behind the wheel.”