POLICE in Lancashire have hailed their festive crack down on drink-drivers as a huge success.
During the campaign, which ran from December 11 last year to January 2, this year,1,855 breath tests were taken with 159 motorists giving a positive result or refusing to take the test.
Last year nearly twice as many tests were carried out, 3,443 in all, with just more than five per cent failing. But this year the campaign period ran for a further week.
Lancashire Police said this was a policy of targeted testing resulting in a higher percentage -- 8.6 per cent -- testing positive compared to five per cent the previous year.
Chief Inspector Val Prince said: "By focusing our policing efforts on known 'hot spot' areas or following up good intelligence, we have clearly seen the benefits this year.
"One hundred and fifty nine people saw fit to take the risk of drinking and driving. This figure continues the downward trend of recent years and suggests a positive and continued change in driver behaviour.
"Drink-driving is considered to be socially unacceptable by most people which is why this year we chose to target certain areas and people with less of an emphasis on checkpoints than in previous years."
In accidents where alcohol was a contributory factor there were no fatalities, four serious injuries and 12 slight injuries .
Initial analysis suggests that speeding drivers and careless pedestrians were to blame for more collisions than drivers who had consumed alcohol.
The drink-driving campaign formed part of the Lancashire Partnership for Road Safety initiative which was launched last November and is also targeting speeding and the non-wearing of seat belts in an effort to reduce death and injury on the county's roads.
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