Greater Manchester Police to carry out vigorous enforcement campaign

Date published: 01 December 2005

Transport Secretary Alistair Darling and Coronation Street star Sally Lindsay joined forces today in the Rovers Return to launch this year's Christmas drink drive campaign.

This years advertising, part of the £2 million Think! Drink Drive campaign, will run throughout December and highlights that motorists can't calculate their own drink drive limits, and so should drink nothing if they plan to drive.

The campaign is being supported by road safety officers and police forces in Greater Manchester, Merseyside, Cheshire, Lancashire and Cumbria who will all be rigorously enforcing the drink drive laws over the festive period.

In 2004, 590 people were killed in drink drive accidents, the highest figure since 1992.

A television campaign running on all commercial networks will be complemented with radio advertisements, which use real police officers to highlight that the police will be out enforcing drink driving. They explain that more people are stopped and breathalysed at Christmas than at any other time of the year.

Transport Secretary Alistair Darling said: "Sadly, the number of people who are being killed in drink drive related accidents has risen in recent years. We need to remind people that drink driving can kill. Drink drivers need to remember that the police are out there and they will be caught.

"Britain has one of the best road safety records in the world and we are determined to improve that. We will continue to come down heavily on those who endanger us all by drink driving."

Sally Lindsay, Coronation Street's Shelly Unwin, the Manager of the Rovers Return, said: "Many of us enjoy a drink or two as we head towards Christmas, but we must always remember that drinking and driving is dangerous and kills and injures too many people each year. It's not possible to calculate how much you can drink before driving so it's best to stay off alcohol if you're going to be driving. Don't have your Christmas ruined by killing yourself or someone else in a drink drive accident."

Chief Inspector Haydn Roberts from GMP's Traffic Planning Department said: "We all like to have a good time at Christmas, but it could be ruined by drinking and driving. When drivers have had a drink, they are not able to calculate the amount of alcohol in their body and even a small amount of alcohol in the system could slow reactions causing a
crash.

"GMP will be enforcing the drink driving laws vigorously over the Christmas and New Year period, to catch the small amount of mindless people who put not only their own lives, but innocent lives at risk too."