Drink-drive crackdown should last all year

W ITH the enthusiasm that comes from a public servant matching volume with performance, the policeman in charge of co-ordinating this year's festive drink-drive crackdown in England and Wales promises that officers will stop more motorists than ever before. Good. As can be seen elsewhere in today's paper, drink-driving causes death, injury and misery. And if such publicity and effort reduces the number of potential killers on the road, through deterrent or arrest, it is all worthwhile. Presumably, to stop more than last year's figure of 183,397 drivers in four weeks will require a concerted effort by police, more so than usual. But what about the other 11 months of the year? There is a rather tacit admission in the comments of North Yorkshire deputy chief constable Adam Briggs, though we are sure he would deny it, that the effort in December against drink drivers far exceeds those of other months.

T he latest figures, for 2007, show that 480 deaths were drink-drive related: 16 per cent of all road traffic deaths that year. That is still a huge figure that demands action. Yet most motorists know that, if they wished to break the law by drinking excessively or taking drugs, the chances of being caught from January to November are minimal, particularly in rural areas, unless they're involved in an accident. Speed cameras don't catch drink-drivers, traffic officers do, but how often do you see cars patrolling the roads of Staffordshire and Cheshire, unless you're on the M6? If police are serious about reducing the drink-drive menace, they ought to display the same level of enforcement 12 months a year, rather than make an seasonal gesture.