Drink driving is a major cause of road crashes around the world – image © courtesy of Tom Schwimmbeck
Drink driving and poor attitudes to the offence are causing additional risks for road users in countries as far apart as Malaysia and France.
The official statistics from Malaysia reveal that an estimated 2,692 people were stopped by police for drink driving during 2021. Police carried out 1,249 separate enforcement actions tackling drink driving during 2021. Malaysia is making serious efforts to reduce its road death rate and addressing drink driving is seen as a key priority.
Drivers in Malaysia were issued with a total of 24,293 charges for a wide range of traffic offences during the 3,017 enforcement actions carried out by police in 2021. Of these traffic offences, 2,491 were sufficiently serious for the people to be detained.
Meanwhile in France, there is concern over the attitudes shown by drivers following a recent survey carried out by the Moaï Institute. Of the 1,030 people in the survey, a worrying 32.7% said that they would drive slowly and use minor roads with low traffic volumes after drinking. Around 50% of those surveyed had no idea of how long is required before the human body can process alcohol. Crash statistics from France show that alcohol is a factor in 31% of fatal road crashes and 48% of crashes that happen at night.
