Road safety campaigners are calling for random testing to be introduced to help curb the increasing number of drink / drug driving related incidents.
The calls come ahead of the festive season, which usually sees a spike in such incidents, and follows research by road safety charity Brake, who revealed most drivers would support random drug and alcohol testing by the police.
The total number of deaths in crashes involving a drink driver went up nine per cent from 230 to 250 between 2016 and 2017 – on average a person is killed or injured in a drink-drive related crash every hour in December.
Drug driving also appears to be on the increase, with the number of fatal and serious drug related crashes increasing by eight per cent from 447 to 484 incidents in the same period.
Brake are calling for police to be given new powers to set up vehicle checkpoints and randomly test drivers for the presence of drink and drugs.
Seven in 10 drivers surveyed said that they would welcome the testing which is already in place in many other countries – including in Northern Ireland, where it was introduced in 2016 - and it has been found to be highly effective in reducing casualties.
At present the law in Scotland only permits the police to breathalyse someone if they have committed a traffic offence, or have been involved in a collision.
Joshua Harris from Brake said: “It’s shocking to see drink and drug driving increasing on our roads, causing untold devastation to families every day.
“We need urgent action by the next Government to tackle this worrying trend and we call for new police powers to set up vehicle checkpoints to carry out random alcohol and drug tests on the roads. “
