§ Ms. WalleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will give details of the number of road and transport drink-related accidents in Stoke on Trent, giving the most recent figures and the annual figures for the last five years.
§ Mr. Peter BottomleyThe only information available on drinking and driving at a local authority level is the number of accidents where a driver has been given a roadside breath test, and failed it. We cannot break down the information on the blood alcohol level of drivers killed to give local authority figures. We know that there are drivers who for various reasons are not given a breath test, some of whom would probably have failed the test.
Given these limitations, and defining a "drink/drive accident" as one where at least one of the drivers or riders involved has been given a roadside breath test and failed it, the provisional accident data for the Stoke-on-Trent local authority area for the period January to July 1988, the latest period for which figures are available, show that 600 personal injury accidents occurred, of which 21 were drink/drive accidents. Comparable data for the last five years are given in the following table:
Accidents: Stoke-on-Trent local authority area: 1983–87 Fatal Serious Slight Total 1983 A 19 252 923 1,194 B 2 22 47 71 C 10.5 8.7 5.1 5.9 1984 A 19 230 1,022 1,271 B 2 17 48 67 C 10.5 7.4 4.7 5.3 1985 A 13 251 936 1,200 B 1 16 50 67 C 7.7 6.4 5.3 5.6 1986 A 16 200 1,025 1,241 B 1 12 72 85 C 6.3 6.0 7.0 6.8 1987 A 9 191 960 1,160 B 0 11 39 50 C 0.0 5.8 4.1 4.3 A = total accidents.
B = drink-drive accidents.
C = B as a percentage of A.