§ Mr. SteinbergTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will provide details of the number of road transport drink-related accidents in Durham, giving the most recent figures and annual figures for the last five years.
§ Mr. Peter BottomleyThe table below shows the total number of accidents in Durham in each of the years 1983
600WThe number of accidents in which a vehicle crossed the central reserve after hitting the central crash barrier increased from 94 in 1983 to 118 in 1987, and increase of 26 per cent. This is partly due to the installation of more crash barriers, as reflected in an increase of 54 per cent. in the number of accidents where a vehicle hit the central barrier, but only 12 per cent. where no central barrier was involved.
roads, from 1983 to 1987, where the vehicle either crossed the central reservation or the vehicle hit the central crash barrier and crossed the central reservation.
to 1987, and the number of accidents in which at least one driver or rider failed a breath test. This is the most common measure of drink-related accidents. These figures will be affected by the proportion of drivers who are tested after an injury crash. It is not possible to produce precise statistics of drink-related accidents because some drivers will have been too severely injured to be breath-tested. The blood alcohol level of drivers who die within 12 hours of an accident are provided from coroner's reports. These are not always complete and exclude those drivers who die after this period but within the 30-day rule for a toad accident fatality.
Road accidents in Durham in which the driver failied the breath test: 1983–87 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 Accidents involving breath test failures 103 136 143 113 127 All road accidents 1,709 1,771 1,789 1,835 1,789