Reported road casualties in Great Britain: final estimates involving illegal alcohol levels: 2018: DfT

Organisation: Department for Transport
Date uploaded: 8th September 2020
Date published/launched: December 1999

This statistical release shows a small decrease in the number of drink-drive related deaths in Great Britain during 2018.

The figures show between 220 and 260 people were killed in collisions where at least one driver was over the drink-drive limit – leading the DfT to produce a central estimate of 240 deaths.

The final estimate is in line with the provisional estimate published earlier this year.

Looking at year-on-year trends, the figure for 2018 is slightly lower than 2017 – when there were 250 drink-drive fatalities – although the DfT says the fall is not statistically significant.

It is, however, 20% higher than 2015 – when the central estimate was 200.

In 2018, drink drive related deaths represented approximately 13% of all reported road deaths.

Despite a fall in the number of deaths, there was a year-on-year rise in the total number of people killed or injured in drink drive related collisions in 2018 – up by 1% to 8,680.

There was also a 3% year-on-year rise in the number of crashes involving a drink driver – up to 5,890.

External links: Access the staistical release via the GOV.UK website