Man, 100, is UKs oldest drink driver as five over 90s caught since 2017
The UK's oldest drinker driver was a 100-year-old man, and he was one of five over 90s stopped by officers while driving over the limit new figures reveal.
Vehicle leasing firm Select Car Leasing has lifted the lid on the country’s problem with drink driving by obtaining fresh data from the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA).
The shocking data showed how four times as many men have had their records endorsed for alcohol-related motoring offences as women in the past five years.
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However, in 2018 91-year-old Pauline Horrigan lost control of a highly-specced Audi while driving through Colchester in Essex, becoming the oldest person in the UK to be convicted of drink driving at the time.
She failed a pair of breathalyser tests at the scene before being arrested. She was recorded with 47 micrograms of alcohol in 100ml of breath – well over the legal limit of 35.
Following the incident Horrigan, who had been driving for 76 years, admitted to drink-driving and pledged to give up her car following the end of her 14-month driving ban.
Graham Conway, Managing Director of Select Car Leasing, said: “Getting behind the wheel while impaired by drink or drugs is never acceptable, no matter what age you are.
“It’s no secret that our ability to drive is often affected as we grow older – our eyesight perhaps isn’t what it was and our reactions become slower."
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The company obtained figures from the DVLA outlining the scale of the problem of drink driving in Britain across the past five years.
In that period, 152,956 men had their records endorsed with either driving or attempting to drive with an alcohol level above the legal limit or driving or attempting to drive while unfit through drink, compared to 38,157 women.
The legal alcohol limit for driving in England, Wales and Northern Ireland is 80 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood.
In Scotland the limit is 50mg / 100ml. A 100-year-old man took the dishonour of Britain’s oldest drink driver, with a 95-year-old woman the next oldest.
Figures from the Department for Transport (DfT) released earlier this year showed 220 people were killed by drink drivers in 2020.
A total of 6,480 people were killed or injured in drink drive accidents in 2020, the most recent year for which figures are available.
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