MORE than 200 drink-drive suspects were stopped by police during December.
Figures released by Hampshire Constabulary show that following the launch of Operation Holly at the start of the festive month, police stopped 201 drivers. Of these, 145 drivers now face the courts, while 33 were bailed and 23 released.
Inspector Martin Goodall said the statistics were a cause for concern.
“The figures continued to rise since the campaign began on December 1 and are both good and bad in equal measure,” he said. “Good because we are catching these people and handing them over to the courts and bad because these numbers suggest that people are still simply not heeding the warnings about drink-driving.”
Male and young male drivers were the worst offenders, with 85 per cent arrested being men and 22 per cent aged between 20 and 24.
The figures show that the number of arrests for drink-driving offences increased significantly over the same period in 2010.
Four days into the 2011 operation, arrests were up 126 per cent over the previous year, and by December 19 cops arrested 145 drivers, up by 18 per cent.
Basingstoke and Deane, Hart, and Andover saw the most drink-drive offences, accounting for 52 per cent of arrests, compared to 40 in central Hampshire, including Fareham and Gosport.
Insp Goodall called on drivers to be responsible when getting behind the wheel.
“Alcohol is not so important that it is worth risking your life and the lives of others for,” he said.
“It’s a drink. How can anyone compare that with someone’s life – and the lives of those left behind? Whether you do it out of ignorance or arrogance, the risks are the same. Let’s hope it doesn’t take a fatal car crash to make people sober up to the fact that drink-driving kills.”
In a bid to curb drinking and driving, police have launched an anonymous text service (80999) for people to alert cops about incidents, as well as dialling 999 if they see someone they suspect to be driving under the influence of drink.
