Almost one million drivers were stopped and tested for drink and drugs offences in the latest Europe-wide crackdown on drink and drug driving by TISPOL, the European Traffic Police Network.

The crackdown ran for one week from June 6th – 12th and twenty-eight countries took part, including countries from outside the EU such as Switzerland and Norway.

In the UK, just 19,064 drivers were stopped but 1,053 (5.5%) of these were found to be over the alcohol limit and 278 (1.5%) were found to be committing drugs offences.

Here are the figures for the UK and some of our immediate European neighbours. It is hard to read too much into these figures, as we don’t know whether each police force used the same criteria to decide how to stop and test drivers. On the other hand, they all prove clearly that drink and drug driving remains a serious issue in Europe:

• UK: 19,064 stopped, 1,053 (5.5%) alcohol offences & 278 drug offences
• Germany: 77,311 stopped, 1,056 (1.4%) alcohol offences & 497 drug offences
• France: 143,146 stopped, 3,386 (2.4%) alcohol offences & 377 drug offences
• Spain: 114,846 stopped, 2,370 (2.1%) alcohol offences & 1 drug offence
• Netherlands: 19,864 stopped, 264 (1.3%) alcohol offences & 0 drug offences
• Ireland: 1,538 stopped, 205 (13.3%) alcohol offences & 9 drug offences

It’s interesting to note how many more people were stopped in Germany, France and Spain than in the UK, despite these countries having similar-sized populations to the UK. The larger sample sizes may suggest more random stops than the UK – which might explain why their alcohol offence levels were so much lower. On the other hand, perhaps more Brits drink-drive…

Equally, in the Netherlands, almost exactly the same number of drivers were stopped, but British police found four times as many drivers over the alcohol limit as the Dutch police. Are British drivers really four times more likely to drink drive, or were the British police stops more targeted and less random than those of the Dutch police?

It’s impossible to read too much into these figures except that to note that drink driving especially remains a significant problem throughout Europe. The Irish contribution does deserve some comment, however – Irish police only managed to stop 1,538 people, of whom 205 (13%) were over the drink-drive limit. Wow – either the Irish police are amazingly good at targeted stops or Irish drivers have a drinking problem…

Driving Abroad? Alcohol Limits Are Often Lower Than UK

One thing that these figures don’t show is that many countries have lower blood alcohol limits for driving than the UK. Norway, for example, has a limit of 0.02% blood alcohol content – just a quarter of the UK’s generous 0.08% limit. (The UK’s limit is one of the highest in the world – only a handful of other countries have limits as high as 0.08%.)

Similarly, most other EU countries have a limit of 0.05% – Germany, France and Spain, for example.

If you are driving a van (or car) abroad, make sure you are prepared and know the local rules before you go and always err on the side of caution. Missing out on a few drinks is a lot easier than dealing with the consequences of being over the limit. Remember, if you are in an collision anywhere in Europe and the police are called, you will usually be breathalysed as part of standard procedure, even if the collision was not your fault.

The AA’s website has an excellent country-specific guide to driving in Europe – click here.