See how drinking or taking drugs affect your driving ability. Find out what the impact is of being caught drink/drug driving, and view ideas to help you celebrate without putting yourself, your friends or family at risk.
The effects of drugs and alcohol on your ability to drive safely
Drinking or taking drugs and driving:
- increases the risk of being involved in a collision
- can slow down your reactions and impairs your judgement making your driving unsafe
- puts you and other road users at risk.
The best advice is to avoid alcohol or drugs completely if you have to drive.
If you do drink, be aware there could be alcohol in your system the following morning meaning you are over the limit.
Units of alcohol and how our bodies process it
Do you know how much you are drinking and what is a unit of alcohol?
Drinks containing alcohol come in many sizes and flavours and it’s good to know just how strong your drink is – and – how many units you are consuming!
A single measure of spirit is 1 unit, an average strength pint of beer and cider are about 2 units whilst a shot glass can also contain 2 units.
A glass of wine will depend on whether you’re having a small, medium or large glass – it could be 2, 3 or 4 units.
Units are a simple way of expressing the quantity of pure alcohol in a drink. One unit equals 10ml or 8g of pure alcohol, which is around the amount of alcohol the average adult can process in an hour.
But what is average?
The way the body processes alcohol is different for each person
This is based on your height, weight, gender and whether you have eaten or not.
The more alcohol you have, the longer it takes your body to process.
For example, a bottle of wine can take 13 hours to leave your body!
Watch our simple explanation video of what a unit of alcohol.
Knowing when it is safe to drive
Knowing your units will help you to know roughly when it will be safe to drive and the morning after calculator can help determine this.
Would you feel uncomfortable asking a friend not to drink when they were driving? if you are the designated driver, your friends are relying on you to get them home safely.
Take it in turns to be the designated driver.
Watch the 'Mates Matter' campaign video.
Drug driving
Drugs include prescribed medicines - it’s illegal in England, Scotland and Wales to drive with legal drugs in your body if it impairs your driving.
Recreational drugs are not quality controlled and therefore are an unknown quantity.
The drug drive limit is trace amounts for illegal drugs which remain in the body for a long time.
If you take recreational drugs, please do not drive
View the full information about drug driving and the law at GOV.UK.
Getting caught drink or drug driving – what it means for you
The police can stop and breathalyse you or use a drug wipe if they have reason to suspect you are impaired through drink or drugs.
In the UK if a driver is found to be over the drink or drug drive limit, and/or driving while impaired, they can receive a maximum penalty of six months in prison, an unlimited fine and an automatic driving ban of at least one year.
View the penalties for drink-driving.
Watch the 'Is the high worth the low' campaign video from Essex Police.
Don’t risk drink or drug driving – alternatives to stay safe
View our Party Safe, Home Safe campaign to see tips for a safe night out.
View the Get Your Coat app for safe journey planning and advice for night outs.
View BBC Good Food's mocktail recipes for alternatives to alcoholic drinks.