Hampshire police drink drive figures show rise in number of women arrested

According to Hampshire Constabulary, from December 1, 2012, to January 1, 2013, a total 5,811 drivers were breath-tested – an increase of four per cent (243) on the same period in 2011.
Of those tested, 205 people gave a positive reading and were arrested and of those, 12 per cent were at least three times over the drink-drive limit.
Police have since charged 140 people (68 per cent) with drinkdrive offences, bailed 51 (25 per cent) pending further enquiries and released 14 (seven per cent) with no further action.
Between December 1, 2011, and January 1, 2012, a total of 240 people were arrested. Of these 176 (73.3 per cent) were charged, showing a 5.3 per cent drop.
Chief Insp Andy Bottomley of Roads Policing for Hampshire Constabulary and Thames Valley Police said that he was pleased with the results, which suggested a reduction in drinkdriving offences across the two counties (Hampshire and The Isle of Wight) during the hardhitting campaign, which this year included police touring with the wreckage of a car, following a fatal drink-drive collision last year.
Chief Insp Bottomley said: “After seeing a nine per cent rise in drink-drive arrests in 2011, it was clear that we needed to invest more time and resources into our Christmas campaign in 2012.
“As part of this we carried out operations every Friday and Saturday night and Sunday and Monday morning, as well as our usual roadside checks, and joined forces with our colleagues in the local Safer Neighbourhoods teams, spreading drink-drive messages with the help of bumper stickers and beer mats in local pubs.”
By area, Eastern and Northern Hampshire had the highest number of arrests this year (2012), with 75 (37 per cent) and 69 (34 per cent) respectively of arrests in the county.
This year (2012) also saw a 44 per cent increase in female drivers arrested (up from 43 to 62) whereas arrests among male drivers fell 27 per cent – from 197 to 143.
The test failure rate for male drivers was 3.2 per cent, whereas for females it was higher at 4.4 per cent
The youngest person arrested was 17 years old while the oldest was 81. The average age of suspected offenders was 37.
The highest failure rate came from drivers aged 30 to 39. Of the 1,166 breathalysed, 51 failed - 4.4 per cent.