As Christmas approaches, the Morning After campaign is urging festive party-goers to be mindful of driving while still over the limit the morning after drinking alcohol.
Christmas parties are the norm in the lead up to 25 December, and during this busy period for socialising the danger of being over the drink drive limit the morning after a heavy night is at its greatest.
With this in mind, the Morning After drink drive campaign team is urging drivers to wise up to how long it takes for alcohol to pass through the body.
Earlier this year the Morning After campaign launched a new app designed to help people calculate when their body is likely to be alcohol-free. The app, which is available free of charge from Google play and the Apple App Store, has achieved 3,000 downloads since being launched in March 2015.
The app, called the ‘Morning After Calculator’, is not intended to help people work out how much they can drink on a night out before driving home. The campaign website says: “If you are drinking any amount of alcohol on a night out – even one drink – you should leave the car at home and make alternative arrangements.”
The app has been produced to help people calculate roughly when it will be safe to drive the morning after drinking alcohol – and to help calculate when they should stop drinking alcohol in order to be safe to drive the following morning.
The Christmas campaign encourages people to send the link to the free app to friends and loved ones to help them check when they will be safe to drive after a festive night out.
A spokesperson for the Morning After campaign said: “It takes much longer than most people think for alcohol to pass through the body which means there is often a danger of people unwittingly driving while still over the legal limit the morning after drinking.
“We are urging people to plan ahead and arrange alternative transport the morning after festive celebrations, if they have to travel to work, for the school run, or any other engagements.
“The penalties for being caught drink driving the morning after are exactly the same as at any other time – it’s no excuse to say you thought you were fine to drive because of the length of time since your last drink.”
Download the app from the Google play store:
Download the app from the Apple store