162 Lancashire drink drive suspects arrested in month-long crackdown

10:13am Wednesday 9th July 2008

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MORE than 160 people were arrested for drink driving in a month-long summer crackdown in Lancashire.

The number is a reduction from a similar operation last year but police said that the message was still not getting through to all motorists.

Chief Inspector Jon Donnelly said that in the last year 10 of the 55 deaths on the county’s roads were due to drink driving.

He said: “Let me reassure people, although the campaign is over, we now move into our Summer Nights operation and the crackdown will continue.”

Mr Donnelly, who is responsible for road policing in Lancashire, said that as part of the crackdown in June, 4,566 breath tests were carried out on motorists across the county.

They included routine tests on drivers involved in accidents as well as those who have been flagged down to take part at special checkpoints which have been set up at various locations.

He added: “The results are better than last year. This campaign had a failure rate of 4.6 per cent compared to 5.5 per cent during last year’s campaign. “However, they have slipped since Christmas as the figure stood at 3.3 per cent.

“Perhaps people think we only have a crackdown at Christmas but let me remind them that is not the case.

“For me the message to motorists remains simple, do not drink and drive or you will be caught.

“Lancashire police will continue to take a firm approach on this issue and I’m sure the public would agree with me that every death on the roads is one death too many.”

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