Saturday Halloween sees spike in drink driving

Drink driving tends to be 4.5 times more frequent when Halloween falls on a Saturday compared to any other day of the week, a new report has revealed.

Drink driving offences are 4.5 times higher when Halloween falls on a Saturday, new research shows

The information was compiled by Denver-based Alcohol Monitoring Systems (AMS), which monitored the behaviour of almost 450,000 drink driving offenders every 30 minutes on a 24/7 basis, and comes ahead of next week’s Saturday Halloween celebrations.

The subjects – who were mostly offenders considered to be high risk, repeat drunk drivers who knew they were being monitored and that there would be consequences – wore transdermal ankle monitors that test every half an hour.

The data analysed offenders being monitored at the start of 2003 in 49 US states, Canada and the UK.

AMS vice president, Lou Sugo, explained the findings are part of trending issues with alcohol misuse and Halloween.

“These individuals are being monitored every 30 minutes, and they know they’re going to be caught,” said Sugo. “You can imagine the rate of drinking for those who aren’t going to be monitored.

“When people drink they generally make bad choices and deciding to get behind the wheel of a car is just one of the potential issues.”

Between 2009 and 2013, 43% of all traffic-related fatalities that took place on Halloween resulted from a drink driving-related crash, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

Furthermore, a total of 26% of pedestrian fatalities on Halloween involve a drunk driver.

NHTSA released the date as part of the firm’s on-going Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over anti-drink driving campaign.