WITH the festive season now upon us, Dorset Police expect more people than usual will be out enjoying a drink. 

Therefore the force are launching its Christmas drink and drug driving campaign.

Dorset Police’s Roads Policing and No Excuse teams will be holding a launch event at the Dolphin Centre in Poole on Thursday. (December 1)

They will be engaging with members of the public, raising awareness of the inherent dangers involved in drink and drug driving and encouraging people to take responsibility this Christmas.

The campaign will be running until Sunday, January 1.

As reported in the Echo earlier this month, almost three people every day are arrested for drink driving on Dorset's roads over the festive season.

Figures revealed that Dorset has one of the highest arrest rates in the whole of the UK for the offence.

According to the research, men are far more likely to drink drive, according research.

The number of men arrested increases by 14 per cent in December – from a three-year average of 64.27 per month from January to November, to 73.3 in December.

There is also an increase in the number of women arrested, although this by a smaller amount of eight per cent, or from 15.09 between January and November to 16.3 in December.

Over three years from 2013 to 2015 there were a total of 269 arrests for drink driving in Dorset. This is the third highest in the country, behind Northern Ireland at 308 and West Midlands at 301.

For Dorset this means there are an average of 89.6 arrests for drink driving every December – or 2.89 per day.

And since the introduction of the new drug driving legislation 49 people in Dorset have been caught from March 2015 to April 2016, with 24 charged. 

Similar to drink driving police now have a roadside test that makes it easier to detect those who are driving under the influence of illegal drugs.

Chief Inspector Adrian Leisk, head of the alliance road policing team across Devon and Cornwall and Dorset Police, said: “Although the number of people arrested in Dorset may be low compared with other force areas, we are disappointed that drivers are continuing to risk people’s lives by getting behind the wheel after taking drugs. The drug driving legislation allows us to remove dangerous drivers from our roads."

Dorset police said the disparity between those caught and charged could be for a number of reasons including laboratory test results coming back under the prescribed limits and that investigations are ongoing and people remain on police bail pending further enquiries and test results.