Fifty years ago on Sunday, the first motorist was pulled over by police to be breathalysed.
The incident in Shropshire on October 8 1967 came at a time when there were 1,640 road fatalities a year attributed to alcohol.
But there has been an eight-fold reduction in the number of deaths despite a dramatic increase in car ownership in the years since.
Prior to the first roadside breath-test, the criteria for prosecution were somewhat less scientific – whether you could touch your nose with your eyes shut, walk in a straight line or stand on one leg.
The 1967 Road Safety Act set the maximum limit at 80mg of alcohol per 100mL of blood (0.35mg of alcohol per litre of breath). It became an offence for the first time to be in charge of a motor vehicle with a blood or breath alcohol concentration exceeding that limit.
The Road Safety Act of 1967 set the maximum limit at 80mg of alcohol per 100mL of blood (0.35mg of alcohol per litre of breath). It became an offence for the first time to be in charge of a motor vehicle with a blood or breath alcohol concentration exceeding that limit.
Scotland has the strictest drink driving rules in the country, with 50 milligrammes of alcohol in every 100 mL of blood, with the law tightened up in December 2014.
Roads Minister Jesse Norman said the breathalyser anniversary was a "remarkable milestone, and I am proud of the work this department has done to reduce the number of deaths from drink driving over the last 50 years."
“The change in attitudes to drink driving during this time has been profound, and there is little doubt that the introduction of the drink-drive limit helped to give us what remains one of the safest road networks in the world.”
50 Years of THINK! Drink Drive Campaigns
RAC road safety spokesman Pete Williams said: “The introduction of a legal maximum limit for the amount of alcohol permissible in driver’s blood has without doubt saved hundreds of lives on the UK’s roads since 1967.
"The breathalyser is central to this as it gave police the ability to assess accurately at the roadside whether a driver was over the limit.
“High-profile police drink-drive campaigns send strong messages to motorists about the tragic consequences of driving under the influence of alcohol and let offenders know they will be caught and punished.”
In 1967, the Department for Transport's predecessor, the Ministry of Transport, launched a major publicity campaign around the new act. The campaign comprised TV, film and newspaper advertising and saw millions of leaflets distributed with vehicle licences.
Since then there have been a whole series of TV and poster campaigns, particularly at Christmas, but more recently throughout the year.
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