Drink Drive Ignorance Revealed by Website Survey

April 21, 2011 - PRLog -- Over 2,300 people completed the online survey* by TopCashback.co.uk into driving habits and when asked about alcohol consumption, less than 1 in 10 knew the facts relating to drinking and driving.

The legal limit for drink driving is 80mg of alcohol per litre of blood but 9 out of 10 did not know how many drinks this equated to. Variations in body size, metabolism and consumption period mean that alcohol has a greater effect on some than on others, leading to the confusion exposed by the survey.

While it is fairly straightforward to calculate the unit of alcohol in a drink, knowing how many units it takes before you’re breaking the law is not so simple. Home Office guidelines suggest the legal limit is reached after 4 units, yet 75% of those responding to the survey thought the limit was 2 units or less. Only 10% gave the ‘right’ answer.

Furthermore when asked how many units various popular drinks contained, most respondents under-estimated the figure, with around 38% thinking that most drinks contained about 2 units of alcohol. A standard (125ml) glass of wine at 11% ABV contains just over 1 unit yet a large (250ml) glass of wine at 13% ABV, typically served in pubs, could be as much as 3.2 units. The same applied to the difference between a pint of mild ale and a pint of strong lager that could easily contain 50% more units.

This means that a couple sharing a bottle of wine (9.75 units) with their meal would both be over the limit if either of them had to drive home. It takes an average healthy adult about an hour to metabolize a unit of alcohol, so even after a meal, there is still enough alcohol in the bloodstream to fail a breathalyser test and more importantly impair driving ability.

Thankfully one of the better responses from those completing the Top Cashback survey indicated that 20% don’t drink at all and more than half (52.5%) had a zero tolerance to drinking and driving and wouldn’t touch a drop before taking the wheel.

That still left 25% (1 in 4) who claimed they would drive after having a drink but only if they knew they were safe and under the limit. Considering the above responses that so few knew what their limit was, this is a worrying statistic.  A tiny hard core of less than 1% admitted that they would drive even when they knew they were over the limit.

On behalf of Top Cashback, Duncan Robb commented “We had an excellent response to this survey from what we’d like to think of as a broad cross-section of drivers and it’s gratifying that almost three quarters of those responding either didn’t drink at all or don’t drink if they’re driving. It is however worrying that there are still those who are prepared to risk it and have a drink without really knowing what the law is or how much they’ve actually had.”  

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Date: 21 April 2011
Issued by Duncan Robb
TopCashBack is the UK’s most generous cashback website. For further information call Duncan on 0207 1939 029 or email duncan@topcashback.co.uk

Notes for Editors:

*  The survey was conducted online,  3rd – 28th Feb, 2011 and completed by 2,310 people.

Top CashBack is the UK’s No 1 Free Cashback Website.  Retailers pay a referral commission for any purchase made on their website via topcashback.co.uk but rather than keep this commission, Top CashBack passes 100% straight back to the customer as ‘cashback’.  Top CashBack is funded by sponsored adverts across the site.  The basic aim is to help each and every UK resident save as much money as possible on their online shopping.  Established in 2005 Top CashBack has an ethos of ‘fair play’ and has gone from strength-to-strength with a membership now approaching 1 million.

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