Recognising the Impact of Drink Driving in Your Community: The Facts and Stats

If you happen to reside in Western Australia, it’s important for you to understand that a charge of drink driving presents a myriad of legal complications, reputation issues, and lifestyle obstructions, but this particular problem continues to be pervasive, and it isn’t going away any time soon.

As such, you have to remain informed with regard to the current drink driving trends, the potential consequences that offenders face, and what to do if you find yourself in this unfortunate situation, all of which will be covered in this revealing report.

Drink Driving By the Numbers

Despite the obvious dangers, downfalls, and penalties related to drink driving, the figures and data associated with this offence are quite disconcerting. Shown below is a snapshot of drink driving in Australia:

• Each and every year, it is estimated that law enforcement authorities conduct upwards of 1.7 million randomised breath tests in Western Australia. This practice was introduced over three decades ago, and the blood alcohol limit across the country is currently pegged at 0.05.
• As a rule of thumb, police are legally allowed to perform a breath test if you are driving a vehicle, involved in a collision, demonstrating indicators of impaired driving, or if you’ve committed some type of driving offence. Refusing to take a breath test is never advisable because you will expose yourself to very harsh penalisations.
• According to reports from the Western Australia Police, almost 10 percent of motorists that are stopped for random testing register an unlawful BAC reading, and one in every 200 drivers are officially charged with a legal offence.
• If your blood alcohol content (BAC) is right at the limit of 0.05, you are essentially increasing your odds of being in a roadway collision by a factor of two, but drivers that exceed a BAC of 0.08 are actually 700% more likely to be involved in a car accident.
• Based on the latest analyses, it is believed that approximately a fifth of all roadway fatalities involve alcohol use by one of the drivers and that the lion’s share of alcohol-related deaths occur during the evening on Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.

Additionally, you might like to know that nine out of every ten drink driving incidents transpire in rural areas, not in metropolitan zones.

What to Do if You Are Charged With a Drink Driving Offence

If you are accused of operating a vehicle under the influence of drugs or alcohol, your first course of action should be to get in touch with a seasoned team of drink driving lawyers in Perth.

These professionals have years of experience with helping Australians avoid legal punishments, gaol time, licence disqualifications, and other serious consequences, which is why they represent your primary resource for rectifying driving offences.

Your attorney will help you maintain a lawful driving licence, and he or she will go above and beyond to preserve your reputation, ensure that you can continue to travel to work, and fend off the might of the criminal justice system. All it takes is a single discussion with a trusted lawyer to begin redeeming yourself and to regain control over your future, so don’t hesitate to reach out for support.