‘Tis the season for socialising and having a good old time with friends and family. But Christmas is also a time of year where having one too many and getting the behind the wheel is a thing far too many people do.
Despite drinking alcohol and driving being a problem all year round, it endures a nasty spike in December, with data from road safety charity Brake showing its the second worst month for drink-drive crashes. And more serious than that, it’s fourth-worst month for people dying in drink driving related incidents.
And with the likes of sporting events giving us a load of opportunity to organise get-togethers, it would not be a shock if 2024 data echoed the above trend we’ve already seen.
With this in mind, I decided to get my hands on a home breathalyser kit to see just how under the influence I was after sitting down with a few drinks to watch the Tyson Fury vs Oleksander Usyk rematch on Saturday, 21 December. And the results shocked me.
UK drink driving data
The current drink driving limit in the UK is 0.8 grams of alcohol per litre (seen typed out as ‘g/l’) of blood sampled. This is the same as 80 milligrams per 100 millilitres, which is a common way of writing a test.
This translates to 0.08 BAC, or blood alcohol concentration. Above this and you’re in serious legal trouble.
When it comes to the breath test, which is usually how most people are brought in to cells after failing at the roadside, it’s a little different.
The above translates to around 0.35 milligrams per litre of breath.
The drinking
Like many on the market, the breathalyser I used likes to keep it simple and claims to have the ability to give you an accurate estimate of your blood alcohol result through your breath.
I did a test before heading out to watch the boxing and it gave me the result I expected; zero grams of booze per litre. Give my last alcoholic drink had been a week earlier at the LADbible Christmas party, I wasn’t surprised. But in the name of research, I needed to evidence myself from the off as being stone-cold sober.
First things first, I obviously had no plan to drive after drinking. The point of this was to echo a situation where someone not thinking about what they were consuming might then get behind the wheel.
We had a small festive party ahead of the big boxing match, with my first drink coming at around 6pm.
With a table full of nibbly bits, I poured myself a rather generous and unmeasured rum and diet coke to add to the idea of not really thinking about what you might be consuming. In measured times, it would have been a around double, so roughly two units of alcohol.
In the build-up to the fight, I counted having five of these in total – one of which had an accidental over pour of rum and ended up being a little bit stronger than even Captain Jack Sparrow could have handled.
The boxing came and the drinks continued; especially with it being a gripping 12-round affair. I’d had another three freely poured rum and cokes in that time.
Home time and the test
I’d had a fair few drinks at this stage, and I could feel it – that sweet spot where you know you’re a little drunk but still in control (a point that differs for all of us). After getting a taxi home with my better half, we decided to have one more before calling it a night.
Enter the Guinness Nitrosurge, with cans cooled in the fridge. Nothing like a proper pint of the black stuff in your own home to round off what was a nice evening with family.
After a casual sip while trying to make sense of the boxing result a little more, and some Christmas songs on Spotify to sing along to out of tune, it was time to go to bed.
But before I went, I gave the breathalyser my attention. What was I at this point in the night – roughly 1am – where I’d had roughly half a bottle of rum and a very recent pint to my name?
Well, I couldn’t actually believe it. The result came back instantly, giving me a reading of 0.5 grams of alcohol per litre of blood sampled. This was alongside a BAC reading of 0.05.
I was legal to drive? There ain’t no way, not in my own head at least. Conscious of the fact I was doing the breathalyser, I imagined trying to get behind the wheel and just laughed to myself. The breathalyser did start beeping at this stage and flashed up ‘danger’, showing that while you could be legal, you’re clearly at huge risk if you drive.
The morning after, testing again, and the result
The same went for the morning after. The first reading, done before 7am thanks to the dog telling me it was time to get up, showed a reading of 0.3 g/l and 0.03 BAC. By 8am, it said I had no alcohol in my system.
I’m not saying the machine is wrong. And that’s not the point of any of this.
Yes, the result shocked me. And that was down to how I felt within my own self. From going to bed shortly after midnight to getting up at 7am, I was seemingly okay to drive for the entire period. But would I?
While pretty inebriated, I was still compos mentis. But I suppose that’s the issue isn’t it, with drunk drivers? They think they’re fine… until they’re not. And it’s that reason why I’d never think about getting behind the wheel in the moments it said I could.
And while, yes, the science does back us up – the NHS reports that the body metabolises one unit of alcohol per hour – reaction time doesn’t correspond to what your bloods might be.
Ultimately, it misses the point in my own book of right and wrong. If you’re going to have a drink, accept you need a way of getting home that doesn’t require driving. And as for the morning after, the same rule applies – know that getting behind the wheel is off limits for a little while.
Because if you risk it, not only are you putting yourself at risk. But other, innocent people on the road. And the heartbreak caused by drink driving is something no family should have to endure.
