‘Morning after’ campaign to run during football tournament

A new campaign has been launched to help motorists avoid the pitfalls of morning after drink driving during the upcoming Euro 2024 tournament. The Morning After Euro 2024 campaign urges motorists to familiarise themselves with how long it takes for alcohol to pass through the body (one hour for each unit of alcohol, plus an additional hour for the first drink), particularly if they plan to take to the road the following morning.

The campaign has been launched ahead of the tournament – during which levels of alcohol consumption will increase, especially when England and Scotland take to the pitch. It uses the hashtag #AvoidThePenalty.

Data shows that during 2021, there were 740 reported drink-drive collisions between the hours of 5am and 1pm, defined as the ‘morning after’ period. This represents 16% of all drink drive collisions that year. Meanwhile in 2019 (the latest data available), police forces administered 27,515 breath tests after a collision during the same time period – 35% of all tests carried out.