Leicestershire Police is calling for people to ‘get tough’ on drink drug drivers as they launch their month long winter campaign which will run throughout December.
In December 2017, Police officers made 78 drink and 21 drug drive arrests, 37 of these arrests were made in Leicester City along with significant numbers in Charnwood (21) and North West Leicestershire (12) along with Hinckley and Bosworth (9).
In addition, 35 of the total arrests were made following a road traffic collision and around a third of people arrested were aged 25 or under.
Chief Inspector Tom Thompson, who is heading up the regional Police campaign across Leicestershire, Northamptonshire and Lincolnshire, said, “Driving while impaired, whether through drink or drugs, devastates lives. Sadly, each year drink and drugs are a contributory factor in death and serious injury on the UK’s roads.
“Improved detection methods, and a change in the law, introduced three years ago have seen a rise on the number of drug drive arrests, a total of 93 people were arrested for drug driving in 2017 compared to 23 in 2015.”
If you see someone who appears to be a drink or drug driver enter a vehicle to drive away, make a note of the registration plate and the direction of travel and call your local police on 101 or make a make a free and anonymous call to CrimeStoppers on 0800 555 111.
For arrest updates during the campaign, follow @RoadSafeLeics on Twitter