THINK! to mark 50 years of drink-drive law with new campaign

The Department for Transport will be launching a new THINK! drink-drive campaign at the end of November, marking the 50^th anniversary of the introduction of the maximum legal drink drive limit was 50 years ago.

The Road Safety Act 1967 made it an offence to drive a vehicle with a blood alcohol concentration of over 80mg of alcohol per 100ml of blood – a limit which remains in place to this day.

Since official statistics first began in 1979, the number of drink drive deaths per year has fallen by 88% from 1,640 to 200 in 2015.

In 1967 DfT’s predecessor, the Ministry of Transport, launched a major publicity campaign around the new Act. The campaign comprised TV, film and newspaper advertising and saw millions of leaflets distributed with vehicle licences. 

The new campaign will be run via THINK!, an on-going DfT initiative aimed at changing a number of behaviours and attitudes to improve road safety, including drink-driving. THINK! campaigns, which were launched in 1964, have played a role reduce the number of deaths on British roads from 22 per day in the 1960s to the current level of five.

Roads minister Jesse Norman said: “This is a remarkable milestone, and I am proud of the work this department has done to reduce the number of deaths from drink driving over the last 50 years. The change in attitudes to drink driving during this time has been profound, and there is little doubt that the introduction of the drink-drive limit helped to give us what remains one of the safest road networks in the world. There is still much further to go, but we are making good progress. Our THINK! campaigns should help to reduce the number of drink-drive incidents even further.”

RAC road safety spokesman Pete Williams said: “The introduction of a legal maximum limit for the amount of alcohol permissible in driver’s blood has without doubt saved hundreds of lives on the UK’s roads since 1967. The breathalyser is central to this as it gave police the ability to assess accurately at the roadside whether a driver was over the limit. High-profile police drink-drive campaigns send strong messages to motorists about the tragic consequences of driving under the influence of alcohol and let offenders know they will be caught and punished.”