Half of all drinkers risk exceeding legal driving limit
Half of drinkers believe they are safe to drive despite exceeding the legal alcohol limit, a new study suggests.
A team of researchers from the University of Cambridge and Witten/Herdecke University studied how accurately participants were able to estimate their fitness to drive after drinking alcohol.
Ninety students in Germany were asked to declare when they believed they had reached the country’s drink-drive limit after being given beer or wine.
More than a third (39 per cent) of participants had already exceeded the threshold by the time they made their declaration on the first day of the study. This rose to 53 per cent on the second day.
Dr Kai Hensel from the University of Cambridge, who led the study, said: “In countries with legal alcohol limits, it’s usually the driver who makes a judgment about how much they’ve drunk and how fit they are to drive. But as we’ve shown, we are not always good at making this judgment. As many as one in two people in our study underestimated how drunk they were – and this can have devastating consequences.”
The researchers also noticed that participants became poorer at estimating their blood alcohol level the more drunk they became. “This could have serious consequences in England and Wales, where the legal driving limit is higher, as it suggests that a significant number of people might misjudge how drunk they are and consider themselves fit to drive when in fact they have a potentially dangerously high level of alcohol in their blood,” added Dr Hensel.
“Drinking and driving is a major risk fact for road traffic accidents. Anything that can be done to reduce these numbers is worth trying. With guidance, our participants were able to improve their judgment. It could be that pop-up stalls set up around drinking establishments to help people understand their breath alcohol concentration might help.
“Really, the best advice is that if you’re driving, just don’t drink. But if you really do feel like a drink, then look into your own alcohol tolerance. This differs from one person to the next, depending on your sex, weight and age, and there are some reliable apps out there that can help guide you.”
