Drinking and Driving

You will know that the UK has stringent regulations in place with regard to the amount of alcohol that you are permitted to drink and then still be considered legally able to drive your car home. You may find it interesting to read that it is a known fact that more men are caught and convicted of drink/driving than women but, in comparison to all convictions, the % of men being convicted of this offence has dropped by around 24% but the % of women being convicted of drink/driving has gone up by about 17%.

Your car insurance prermiums may rise if you are convicted of exceeding the alcohol drink/drive limit

Do not exceed the alcohol limit whilst driving your car as this may impact negatively on your car insurance

You will no doubt be aware that if you are convicted of a drink/driving offence that this can lead to severe punishment and would no doubt impact on your car insurance in a negative manner. For instance, you could receive a number of points on your driving license, you could be fined a considerable amount of money, you could be banned from driving and you could even go to prison.

You may find that there are fewer insurance companies that would consider providing you with car insurance. You are legally required to have this cover if you wish to drive a car and your car insurance premiums are likely to increase significantly. It is possible that you may find the increased premium is not affordable resulting in you not being able to drive a car and this could affect your employment especially if you are something like a travelling salesman.

Back in 2012, it was found that 1,200 people suffered serious injury due to a motorist being over the alcohol limit to drive legally with 280 people loosing their lives having been involved in accidents that were drink related. We are sure that you will agree these statistics are concerning and no doubt could have been avoided.

The Police Federation would recommend that if you are driving then, quite simply, do not drink alcoholic drinks. In order not to impact on your car insurance, you may wish to follow their recommendation.