'Don't kick off' is message in World Cup alcohol awareness campaign

Thames Valley Police has teamed up with West Berkshire Council’s Road Safety and Trading Standards teams to offer advice and initiatives to the thousands of revellers who are expected to gather in the town centre’s pubs and clubs throughout the tournament.
Under the plans, outlined at an alcohol awareness meeting at Bar Sport last week, it was revealed that three pubs in the town centre - The Hogshead, Bar Sport and Document House will all offer a free soft drink to designated drivers to try and reduce the number of people tempted to drink and drive.
Meanwhile, the council’s Safer Communities Partnership Team have distributed t-shirts to town centre pub staff with a QR barcode on the back, which, when scanned with a smartphone, leads the user to a website which offers advice on alcohol consumption and how to safely plan a journey home at the end of the night.
Staff at pubs across the town will be given ‘knock back’ cards, which they can hand out to people who they feel have had too much to drink. The scheme has proved popular during a trial run in Corby recently.
A special event has also been organised in the Market Place from 5.30pm to 9.30pm on June 12 - the first day of the World Cup - to offer guidance on how to get home safely after a night out.
The event will also be attended by the Royal Berkshire Fire and Rescue Service (RBFRS) who will perform a live rescue to show people how they have to cut people out of cars following a crash.
The Road Safety team will also launch a mobile application on the same day, in which users can input the amount of alcohol they have consumed and see if they are over the legal drink drive limit.
At the meeting, representatives from the Road Safety team said that people often underestimate how strong an alcoholic drink is and get in the car saying they feel fine.
Another issue raised was that many people do not realise they could still be over the limit the following morning.
The Road Safety team said they would be carrying out stringent “morning after checks” to crack down on motorists who drive the day after a night out.
Manager of the Safer Communities Partnership Team, Susan Powell, said: “It is not about telling people that they can’t drink and enjoy themselves - we are asking people to be aware of their alcohol consumption and the consequences it can cause.”
Thames Valley Police will launch a summer drink drive campaign on June 2 - ten days before that start of the tournament.
It says that during 2013, 85 people in Thames Valley were killed or seriously injured in road collisions where a person was impaired by alcohol.