21 people were arrested in Guernsey on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol during the 2020 Christmas Drink Drive Campaign.
10 of those people were stopped as a result of proactive police checks, 6 were involved in RTCs, and 5 were called in by members of the public. These numbers are higher than expected, and very disappointing, and simply mean one thing, there have been 21-too-many drink drivers during this period.
The Guernsey Bailiwick Law Enforcement’s goal is to keep the islands as safe and secure places to live and work. Guernsey Police has demonstrated during December that it will continue cracking down on drink driving. But making arrests is not the goal, it is a necessity if people have not got the message that drink driving is unacceptable.
Drink driving puts you at risk, and it puts everyone else around you at risk as well. As a Bailiwick community, everyone can do their part to ensure that they, and no one they know, decides to get behind the wheel after drinking alcohol.
Roads Policing Inspector Tom Marshall said: “If people are going out to drink, have a plan about how you are going to get out, and how you are going to get home, that doesn’t involved your car. Drink driving continues to be dangerous, and although during this period we haven’t seized any vehicles, it remains an option to us in any serious cases that arise. We will continue to deal robustly with drink driving during 2021, and those that chose to do so will be caught, and will be dealt with appropriately by the courts”.
Andrea Nightingale, Drug & Alcohol Strategy Coordinator, said: “We want to obviously prevent as much drink driving as we possibly can, but also look at the reoffending side of it. We know that drink drivers will continue driving if they aren’t caught, so there may be measures such as ignition locks that can go on to vehicles if you have been convicted of a drink driving offence, and those might be some things that we have to look to implementing during 2021 and in the future if we cannot get the amount of drink drivers down”.
At the end of the day, the message is clear, don’t drink and drive. If you do, you will be caught, but that doesn’t remove the danger driving under the influence presents.
