On the scale of really bloody stupid things you do when you’re drunk, getting behind the wheel of a car has to be on the top of the list. It’s worse than drunk texting your ex boyfriend ‘what you doing?’ at 4am, worse than giving your number to that random taxi driver you thought was friendly and worse than deciding tonight’s the night to try free climbing for the first time. Combined. Times about 20.
But despite this, 50 years after the first campaign launched to persuade drivers to avoid alcohol, the message still doesn’t seem to be getting through to a small but significant proportion of women. According to new research launched by the AA today, women are kicking the drink-driving habit more slowly than men. Whilst the likelihood of a male driver failing a breath test after an accident has been falling steadily, the decline in female failure rates has been only a third of that of men. The study showed that the number of men who failed a breath test after an accident had dropped by 17.6 per cent between 2010-2013 from 2,992 compared to 2,466. During the same period, fewer women failed a breath test after an accident (853 to 803) but in total the drop was only 5.9 per cent. So why is the message about drink driving failing to get through to some women and why are some of us still taking the risk?
READ MORE: Uh Oh, Female Friendly Drink Drivers Have Doubled According to New Survey
‘I’ve done it a couple of times in the last six months and, if I’m honest, it was just because I was being lazy and belligerent and I couldn’t afford a taxi ride home,’ Grace Fry, a 26 year-old teacher explains to The Debrief. ‘On both occasions I woke up in the morning and couldn’t believe I’d just put myself and so many other drivers at risk for the sake of a tenner. It made me feel properly sick and, after the bollocking I got from my friends the next day, I definitely won’t be doing it again. I justified it in my head, I guess, at the time by thinking it was safer than getting into a cheap, unmarked taxi but I realise that’s a terrible excuse. I could have lost my job or killed someone or myself. Not cool.’
‘I think part of the problem with me is that I always FEEL fine when I get behind the wheel – I’ve never done it when I felt out of control,’ explains Sarah Barry, a 26 year-old marketing manager admits to The Debrief. ‘But chances are I could have drunk nearly a bottle of wine so I would obviously be over the limit and probably don’t know how drunk I am. It’s stupid and I know it could go very badly fucking wrong very quickly. For me, I’m single and I don’t feel safe walking home on my own and taxi drivers can be real creeps, if I feel ok the temptation to just take myself off can often be too tempting. I know it’s awful though and, if I told my friends, they’d absolutely kill me. A friend of ours broke her collarbone after getting into the car of someone who was drunk and crashed so it’s very close to home. I should know better.’
The government’s THINK! initiative is rolling out new, hard-hitting campaigns over the next few weeks to convey the message that there are still people being killed on the road by drink-drivers. A message we could all be reminded of some time.
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This article originally appeared on The Debrief.