Twenty per cent of respondents in an AA poll carried out this month admitted they have knowingly taken a lift from a driver they understood to be over the legal blood alcohol level (0.8 mg ) within the last two years.
This limit is set to drop to 0.2mg for both learners and professional drivers and to 0.5 mg for remaining motorists within the next couple of months.
The AA survey, which received more than 14,000 responses, also reveals an even higher portion of 17 to 24 year olds, 26.1 per cent, have made the same wreckless judgment call of accepting a lift from someone they believed to be over the legal limit.
“While as a passenger you may not be breaking the law under these circumstances, you do have a moral responsibility,” says Conor Faughnan of AA Ireland. “Alcohol is a contributing factor in a third of fatal accidents on our roads. And passengers owe it to their own safety and that of other road users not to turn a blind eye or allow convenience to overrule their good sense.
“Eight-seven per cent of motorists last year, according to a nationally representative sample, told us they believe drink driving to be extremely shameful. While high in relative terms, this still means that 13 per cent have other ideas which is worrying,” says Faughnan.
The poor judgment of the 17 to 24-year-old age group does not stop at travelling with an inebriated driver. According to the poll’s findings, 11.6 per cent of participants within this age group also said they had allowed themselves to be driven by someone they suspected of being under the influence of narcotics.
A higher percentage of respondents in this age group than in any other yet again indicated they had taken a lift from someone they knew to be severely hung-over.
More than a third (35.6 per cent ) of those who participated in the AA poll stated they had at least once within the last two years travelled with a driver they knew to be nursing a very bad hangover.
Forty-five per cent also admitted they had driven “the morning after the night before” while still unsure whether their blood alcohol levels had returned to legally permissible levels. The AA’s study also reveals that 10 per cent more men than women, 49.8 compared to 39.7 per cent, have taken this gamble at some point or another within the last two years.
In the individual comments section of the poll many drivers expressed their frustration at not having the means to determine with certainty when they were safe to drive the day after a heavy night on the tiles. Others vented that a lack of public transport in their area had induced them to run the risk.
Irrespective of the law, from a driver safety perspective, the AA reminds drivers that the range of symptoms that arise from a hangover such as headaches, light headedness, nausea, thirst, lethargy, and a decreased attention span can significantly impair their ability to drive making them potentially as dangerous as an intoxicated driver.
On an inter county level, a higher percentage of poll participants in Monaghan than any other county, 30.8 per cent, stated they had been a passenger in a vehicle where they suspected the driver to have had at least one too many. After Monaghan, 25.4 and 24.7 per cent of those in Donegal and Clare respectively said the same was true in their case.
A higher portion in Roscommon than anywhere else, 7.6 per cent, said they had allowed themselves to be driven by someone they understood to be high on an illegal drugs. This was followed by 5.3 per cent in Donegal and 4.9 per cent in Wexford.
The findings of the AA poll identify those in Clare (52.4 per cent ), Cavan (49.8 per cent ) and Limerick (49.8 per cent ) as most likely to take a chance and drive while possibly still a little drunk the day after a heavy night’s boozing.
